Characteristics of Vacuum-Arc Cathode Spots on the Refractory Metal Electrodes

The paper describes investigation of characteristics of vacuum-arc cathode spots on refractory metal electrodes (Mo, W) that depend on magnetic field and the arc current and length: velocity of spot motion, average current per spot, and Robson angle. In the experiments, the arcs have lengths $h={2}$ and 6 mm and are subjected to magnetic field inclined to the cathode surface. The cathode surface is filmed during arcing by high-speed photography camera. The results obtained are compared with ones found in the literature.