Critical state model for explosive emission plasma parameters estimation

Abstract

A model has been proposed for estimation of plasma parameters of explosive electron emission pulses in vacuum arc discharge. It based on transition through the critical state during the explosion and allow to predict the cathode spot plasma parameters for various materials. The cathode flare plasma ions kinetic energy was estimated to be of about 100 times critical temperature. Average ions charge has been estimated as (1 + critical temperature value in eV). Both dependencies agree with experimental results. Explosive electron emission plasma momentum per transferred charge has been evaluated to be about tens of g cm / (s C) and agrees with the product of measured ions velocity and erosion rate. Effective critical temperature approach has been proposed for the estimation of plasma properties for the arc burning at surface with a fine structure