Current–voltage characteristics of a substrate in a crossed E×B field system exposed to plasma flux from vacuum arc plasma sources

The current–voltage characteristics of a substrate with crossed electrical and magnetic fields subjected to plasma flux from a vacuum arc plasma source was investigated. It was found that the slope of substrate current–voltage curves depends significantly on the magnetic field strength, and the maximum substrate current depends on the gas pressure in the system. When a magnetic field is not applied, the substrate current does not depend significantly on bias voltage and is mainly determined by the gas pressure. With a magnetic field of 0.02 T applied, the substrate current reaches 3.5 A at a pressure of 0.1 Pa but only 1.5 A at 10 Pa. When the pressure is 0.01 Pa or lower, the magnetic field does not influence the current. This behavior was explained by enhanced ionization of the background in a system of crossed electrical and magnetic fields.