The formation of arc spots on cold cathodes, called arcing, is an interference factor in all kinds of plasma technical devices. It is investigated by igniting an arc in a clean atmospheric pressure Ar or Kr filling of a stainless steel vessel. It is brought into interaction by a magnetic blast field with a negatively biased commutation electrode (CE), formed by a rod with a diameter of 2 mm consisting of pure Al, Cu, Ti, or graphite; its end face is polished with diamond grinding powder. The arc commutation is observed by short-time photography, streak camera records, and temporally highly resolved optical spectroscopy for different applied voltages. The emission of ion lines of the filling gas and of vaporized electrode material by the plasma in front of the cathode is indicating the formation of a positive space charge layer in front of its surface. It provides the ions, which induce secondary electron emission of the cathode surface and with it, the arc commutation. The commutation time t_c elapsing between a signal generated by the arc plasma in front of the CE and the beginning of a current flow through the electrode increases for low voltages with increasing permittivity of a surface layer formed by electrically insulating metal oxide and decreases with increasing electrical conductivity of the layer. It is lowest for graphite without an oxide layer. On scanning electron microscope pictures, taken of the end face of the electrode after arc commutation, craters with diameters of less than 1 μm are visible.

中文翻译：

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致密惰性气体等离子体与冷阴极相互作用的研究：I—Al、Cu、Ti 和石墨阴极的实验装置和应用

在冷阴极上形成电弧点，称为电弧，是各种等离子技术设备中的干扰因素。它是通过在一个干净的大气压 Ar 或 Kr 填充不锈钢容器中点燃电弧来研究的。它通过磁场与负偏置换向电极 (CE) 相互作用，该电极由直径为 2 毫米的棒形成，由纯铝、铜、钛或石墨组成；其端面用金刚石磨粉抛光。通过短时摄影、条纹相机记录和不同施加电压的时间高分辨率光谱来观察电弧换向。填充气体的离子线和阴极前等离子体的蒸发电极材料的发射表明在其表面前形成了正空间电荷层。它提供离子，诱导阴极表面的二次电子发射，并随之产生电弧换向。换乘时间t _c在由 CE 前面的电弧等离子体产生的信号和开始流过电极的电流之间经过，对于低电压，随着由电绝缘金属氧化物形成的表面层的介电常数的增加而增加，并且随着电导率的增加而减小。层。没有氧化层的石墨最低。在扫描电镜照片上，在电弧换向后的电极端面拍摄，可以看到直径小于 1 μm 的陨石坑。