The effect of cathode deuteration on the parameters of vacuum-arc plasma

We propose a model for determining the influence of the relative content of deuterium in a zirconium cathode on the properties of vacuum-arc plasma. It is shown that the occlusion of deuterium in the cathode leads to an additional energy consumption for its ionization and to the related decrease in the average charge of cathode material ions in the discharge plasma. Deuterium in the cathode spot is fully ionized, and the drift velocity of deuterium ions almost coincides with that of ions of the cathode material.