Mass spectroscopic investigation of ionized compenents of vacuum-arc discharge plasma

Special features of the application of a mass spectroscopic method to analysis of ionized components of the plasma of a vacuum-arc discharge are discussed. The intensities of N⁺, O ₂ ⁺ , Ar⁺, TiN⁺, and TiO⁺ ions as functions of the pressure of the corresponding neutral gas and the magnitude of the magnetic-field strength on the cathode surface are measured. The average energy of the N⁺ and TiN⁺ ions as measured with an electrostatic probe is equal to ≈25 eV. The number of the N⁺, O⁺, TiN⁺, and TiO⁺ ions that emerge on the cathode and propagate in the direction of the substrate is tenths of a percent of the number of metal ions, which confirms the mechanism of reactive vacuum-arc coating forming directly on the substrate. Physico-Technical Institute Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 4, Zhodinskaya St., Minsk, 220730. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 5, pp. 674–678, September–October, 1997.