Arc discharge in the vapor of electrode material: study of the cathode processes

Summary form only given, as follows. This work is devoted to investigate theoretically the processes occurring in the cathode region of the electric arc in vacuum, as well as to carry out computational investigations in this field. The self-sustained physical and mathematical models were developed to study the processes on the cathode surface, in the near-cathode plasma and cathode´s bulk. There was carried out a detailed investigations of an influence of the electric field of individual ions, incoming to the surface from the plasma, on the F-T electron emission. Parameters of the near-cathode plasma and the computer simulation results for the dynamics, structure and parameters of the cathode spot are presented and discussed. In frames of the theoretical investigations a software is being developed, which is to be used for computer modeling of thermal processes, the plasma-electrode interaction, multi-component plasma calculation, thermo-field electron emission in the most general approach to calculation of electron emission current density and Nottingham effect.