Study of Ion Characteristic of Vacuum Arc Ion Source with Titanium-nickel Alloy Hydride Cathode

The titanium-nickel alloy hydride was applied to high-current long pulse (200 A/270 μs) vacuum arc discharging in this paper, which is more resistant to fragmentation and maintains good stability under high temperature condition generated by high-current long pulse vacuum arc discharging. In addition, an experimental study of the ion charge state distribution and mass-charge component of vacuum arc discharging with titanium-nickel alloy hydride cathode by the time-of-flight method was carried out for the first time. The results show that titanium ion and nickel ion have charge states of 1+, 2+, and 3+. Meanwhile, in the early stage of the discharging process (0-30 μs), the composition of H⁺ gradually increases with time, and reaches a maximum ratio of 57% at 30 μs, while the compositions of Tiⁿ⁺ and Niⁿ⁺ (n=1,2,3) rapidly decrease with time, and reach a minimum ratio of 43% at 30 μs; in the later stage of the discharging process (30-270 μs), the composition of H⁺ begins to decrease rapidly and remains unchanged at around 12% after 75 μs until the end of the pulse, and the compositions of Tiⁿ⁺ and Niⁿ⁺ (n=1, 2, 3) gradually increase with time and remain around 88% after 75 μs until the end of the pulse.