真空弧放电TiH合金阴极表面形貌分析

TiH合金电极是一种含氢量非常高的金属材料，用它作真空弧离子源的电极，可在真空环境下产生强度非常高的氢离子流。相比纯金属材料电极，TiH电极除了出现真空弧放电特有的融蚀现象外，还存在气体释放过程，所以它的表面形貌具有一定的独特性。利用扫描电子显微镜观察了单次放电和多次放电后阴极表面形貌，发现阴极斑在阴极表面微裂纹附近连续分布，气体释放生成很多小孔，使阴极斑区域呈絮状结构；弧流越大，阴极斑数量越多；多次放电后，阴极斑朝含氢量多的地方移动。该结果有助于了解含氢电极的真空弧放电过程，对该类放电的应用具有一定参考意义。

Surface morphology analysis of TiH cathode in vacuum arc discharge

TiH alloy is a highly hydrogenated metal, which could be used as electrode of vacuum arc ion source and produces strong hydrogen ion current. TiH electrode surface has molten craters as the pure metal cathode does, and many pores form while hydrogen gas is released from the alloy. Hence TiH electrode surface has some special characteristics. This paper uses SEM to research the cathode surface appearances after single discharge and many times of discharges. The results are that the cathode spots are continuous distributions around the micro cracks, the gas pores make the surface look like cotton fiber, the numbers of cathode spots grow when the arc current grows, the spots move towards the place containing more hydrogen. These results are helpful to understand the progress of vacuum arc discharge with hydrogenated electrode, and to the applications of such morphology.