Experimental Investigation on the Vacuum Arc Behaviors of the Axial Magnetic Field (AMF) Electrode with Single Coil Structure

In this paper, the influence of arc current on vacuum arc behaviors of a new AMF electrode with single coil structure was investigated at long gap distance of 40 mm. A high-speed charge couple device (CCD) video camera was used to observe the arc behaviors. Two groups of arc modes were featured: 1) diffuse arc modes including multi-cathode spots arc, high current diffuse arc and high current diffuse column arc. 2) constricted arc modes including anode plasma jet with local concentration of many cathode spots and group of cathode spots (APJS), anode plasma jet with local concentration of many cathode spots, anode and cathode plasma jets (APJ), and intense arc mode. The vacuum arc behaviors under different amplitude of arc current were researched.