Oxide Coated Cathode Plasma Source of Linear Magnetized Plasma Device**supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11275200)

Abstract

Plasma source is the most important part of the laboratory plasma platform for fundamental plasma experimental research. Barium oxide coated cathode plasma source is well recognized as an effective technique due to its high electron emission current. An indirectly heated oxide coated cathode plasma source has been constructed on a linear magnetized plasma device. The electron emission current density can reach 2 A/cm2 to 6 A/cm2 in pulsed mode within pulse length 5–20 ms. A 10 cm diameter, 2 m long plasma column with density 1018 m−3 to 1019 m3 and electron temperature Te ≃ 3–7 eV is produced. The spatial uniformity of the emission ability is less than 4% and the discharge reproducibility is better than 97%. With a wide range of the plasma parameters, this kind of plasma source provides great flexibility for many basic plasma investigations. The detail of construction and initial characterization of oxide coated cathode are described in this paper.