Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The most likely velocity of ions moving away from vacuum arc cathode spots was measured using a set of probes along the path of plasma expansion. The goal was to determine how much, if any, change of the ion drift velocity occurs in the expanded plasma. The arc discharge current was perturbed to create plasma density markers whose travel is picked up by the set of probes. It was found that the perturbation with current oscillations did not result in consistent data because ion current maxima and minima are not only determined by the plasma production but by the transients of the arc pulse and by the asymmetry of the ion velocity distribution function. Perturbation with a short current spike was more conclusive. The ion velocity was measured to be slightly reduced with increasing distance from the cathode, which can be explained by collisions of ions with the background of neutrals. The ion velocity was increased when the arc current was increased, which correlated with enhanced arc voltage and power dissipation. The ion velocity could be enhanced when the plasma was produced in a non-uniform magnetic field.