A New Model of Crater Formation by Arc Spots

The forces acting on the cathode arc spot surface and removing the molten layer from the crater bottom are composed mainly of the ion pressure, the neutral gas pressure and the evaporation recoil whilst electrostatic forces diminish the effective pressure that is in the order of some 10⁹ dyn/cm². The motion of the liquid layer caused by these forces is treated with the hydrodynamic equations. A simple solution exists in the special case of constant layer depth, that is achieved a few nanoseconds after spot formation. From this model the layer depths (some 0.1 μm) and the ejection velocities at the crater rims (few 10⁴ cm/s) are calculated. The real spot velocity agrees with the velocity of the melting front below the spot surface, but because of the stochastic character of the spot motion the apparent velocity decreases with growing observation time intervals Δt according to Δt^?1/2.