Impact of Discharge Current rate of High-current Low-inductance Vacuum Spark on Submicron size Structure in Electrode Surface Area

This paper deals with the results of studying the impact of discharge current rate on electrode surface area of high-current low-inductance vacuum spark. Iron electrodes were utilized for research. It was discovered that the size of periodic structure cells on a cathode surface decreased from 600 nm (63 kA) to 150 nm (180 kA) as the discharge current rate grew along with switching to the micropinching mode. The discharge current rate exerted no significant impact on the size of structure elements on anode surface (the structure size at all currents was ∼ 400 nm).