Hall stratum filtered cathodic arc source for carbon plasma

A novel filtered cathodic vacuum arc source of carbon plasma, in which plasma ions are reflected from a Hall stratum formed in the inter-electrode gap, was studied. The plasma source consisted of a rectangular carbon cathode, positioned between the poles of a permanent magnet, a copper anode, and a triggering mechanism. An arc was operated with current pulses having a duration of 7 ms and a peak current of 200 A.It was shown that the cathode spot plasma jets were reflected from the Hall stratum formed in the arched magnetic field, and bent through 180° towards substrates positioned alongside of the cathode, while macroparticles flew from the cathode spots in straight trajectories. The calculated thickness of the Hall stratum ranged from less than 1 mm to ≥ 10 mm. The ratio of the substrate ion current to the arc current was ∼ 7.5%, which is much larger than that of most known filtered systems, and approaches the plasma transfer efficiency of unfiltered vacuum arc plasma sources.