894
4, AUGUST 1999
The Behavior of Vacuum Arc Discharges
on Hydrogen Impregnated Electrodes
Alexander A. Logatchev, Vasiliy P. Afanas’ev, Sergey M. Shkol’nik, Burkhard Jüttner, and Heinz Pursch
Abstract—This paper reports on experimental studies of the be-
havior of vacuum arcs at hydrogen impregnated electrodes. The
arc discharges were analyzed by high speed photography, open
shutter photography, measurement of arc voltage and current,
and measurements of the erosion in dependence on the level of
impregnation for a wide range of arc currents. The results show
that impregnation of electrodes with hydrogen reduces the erosion
rate, causes smaller crater dimensions, changes the macroparticle
size, and decreases the current per spot. For a given current
the arc voltage depends on the degree of impregnation. At low
current it decreases with increasing impregnation. Furthermore,
the arc discharge burns more stable on impregnated electrodes.
The total erosion rate decreases significantly due to the reduction
of the droplet fraction. The spot movement is faster than on
nonimpregnated electrodes.
Index Terms—Arc discharges, cathodes, vacuum arcs.
I. INTRODUCTION
M ANY electric power applications use vacuum arcs for
circuit interruption, vapor deposition, or the production
of particle beams. A severe problem of such devices is the
electrode erosion determining reliability and lifetime. The
existence of the vacuum discharge is maintained by permanent
electron emission and erosion of cathode material from very
small spots of high plasma density in the order of 10 m
Because of the extreme properties of the cathode spots it is
very difficult to investigate them experimentally. Therefore, in
the past composite materials were empirically tested to reduce
the electrode erosion.
A new approach to the erosion problem is the use of
hydrogen impregnated electrodes. A controllable gas content
of the electrodes is expected to change the arc parameters and
the erosion. The behavior of discharges with such electrodes
is still unknown.
In this paper we describe the features of vacuum arcs at
impregnated electrodes and characterize the influence of the
gas content on the current per spot, the particle emission, and
the erosion rate.
Manuscript received October 26, 1998; revised March 5, 1999. This work
was supported by Volkswagen–Stiftung under Grant I/ 70 778.
A. A. Logatchev, V. P. Afanas’ev, and S. M. Shkol’nik are with IOFFE-
Physico-Technical Institute Russian Academy Science, St. Petersburg 194021,
Russia.
B. Júttner and H. Pursch are with Humboldt Universität Berlin, Institut für
Physik, Lehrstuhl für Plasmaphysik, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-3813(99)06927-1.
0093–3813/99$10.00  1999 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
A. Procedure of Electrode Production
The basic material of the samples was titanium because
of the high ability of storing hydrogen in the metal matrix.
Inside titanium a hydrogen concentration of 10 m can be
realized. However, the hydrogen content reduces the mechan-
ical strength and causes the destruction of samples at high
hydrogen density. Thus, the highest level of impregnation
was limited to 1.2, i.e., per 1 atom Ti 1.2 atoms H can be
impregnated [1].
Before impregnation the samples were degassed by heating
at a temperature of 850 C in continuously pumped vacuum
chamber. Degassing was stopped when the pressure became
10 Pa. After taking room temperature the samples were
heated in a hydrogen atmosphere at 600 C. The heating
time for the production of a uniform hydrogen distribution
depends on the geometrical size of the electrodes and can be
determined using values of the diffusion constant established
in [2]. The impregnation phase takes about 3 h. The content
of hydrogen was checked by weighing and from the amount
of hydrogen remaining in the vessel with an accuracy of
0.02. By this procedure samples with a hydrogen content
between were produced. The weight of the
impregnated samples depends on the impregnation degree. For
example the weight of a cylindrical degassed sample (diameter
20 mm) was 10.1500 g. After impregnation ( ) the
weight of the same electrode was 10.2402 g. Two kinds of
samples were prepared: titanium butt contacts with a diameter
of 20 and 35 mm and titanium sheets of a thickness of 0.8
mm with an area of 20 50 mm
B. Experimental Setup
The experiments were performed in metal vacuum chambers
evacuated to pressures 10 Pa. Before the measurements
started the surface of the samples were cleaned by pulse arcs.
The arc discharges were initiated by separating a trigger pin
from the cathode at low current 10 A). The arc at massive
samples was triggered by a pin in the anode center moving
apart from the electrode. The main arc current was formed by
rectangular pulses with an amplitude of 100 A to 5 kA and a
duration between 0.5 and 2.5 ms were used. On the sheets a
single moving trigger pin was used to ignite arcs with currents
below 100 A. These low current arcs burned about 7 ms.
LOGATCHEV et al.: BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC DISCHARGES 895

Fig. 2. Frame of a high current arc at degassed electrode (arc current 2 kA,
exposure time 12 s).

Fig. 1. Open shutter photograph of a single cathode spot at hydrogen

impregnated titanium electrode (arc current 70 A, observation time 5 ms,
impregnation = 0:81): The size of the view is 32 mm 2 32 mm.

The anode was made of copper and has the same size as the
massive butt samples or is formed as rectangular annulus (15
mm 40 mm). The distance between cathode and anode was
Fig. 3. Expansion of the arc spots over the cathode edge to the cylindrical
fixed at 6 mm. Because of the low ability of storing hydrogen electrode surface (arc current 3.5 kA).
the Cu-anode cannot be a significant source of hydrogen.
The arc spots were photographed by a charge-coupled
device (CCD) camera or filmed by a high speed camera
with a framing time of 12 s/frame. The frames were taken
at a 10 angle with respect to the cathode. Simultaneously,
arc current and arc voltage were recorded by a transient
recorder, and the gas release of the samples was measured.
After arcing the erosion traces were analyzed by scanning
electron microscope (SEM). The erosion rate was determined
by mass loss technique (weighing before and after arcing).
Furthermore, collecting probes were mounted in the cathode
plane to capture particles leaving the cathode.
(a)

III. RESULTS

A. Dynamic of Spots
With low current some single cathode spots move randomly
and very rapidly over the cathode surface as depicted in Fig. 1.
It is known that the cathode spot motion can be described as
a random walk [3]. Therefore, velocity estimates depend on
the observation interval
Taking into account this fact the measured velocities can
be compared with data on nonimpregnated electrodes. For an
interval ms we estimated velocities of about 2–4 m/s
for impregnated electrodes, whereas for spots on pure titanium (b)
electrodes at the same observation time a velocity of about 0.3
Fig. 4. (a) Arc current and (b) voltage at degassed electrode.
m/s was measured.
At high current (100 A kA) and degassed electrodes
the arc spots propagate in form of a ring [3], [4]. The This leads to a decrease of the current transfer to the anode
expanding ring consists of numerous single spots that tend to and causes fluctuations of the arc current and voltage (Fig. 4).
form spot clusters at larger distance from the ignition center The voltage fluctuations initiate the formation of some new
(Fig. 2). When the spot clusters cross the electrode edge and cathode spots that are chaotically distributed over the cathode
stay at the cylindrical surface the plasma of the spots does surface. But they are not able to stabilize the discharge for
not sufficiently contribute to the discharge plasma (Fig. 3). longer burning times.
896 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO. 4, AUGUST 1999

Fig. 5. Frame of a high current arc at impregnated electrode (arc current 3.5
kA, exposure time 12 s, impregnation = 0:81): (a)

Fig. 6. Collection of the cathode spots on the butt electrode surface at

impregnated electrode (arc current 3.5 kA, exposure time 12 s, impregnation (b)
:
= 0 81) :
Fig. 7. (a) Arc current and (b) voltage at impregnated electrode.

When the electrode is impregnated by hydrogen it was

observed that already in the beginning also inside the ring a
considerable number of spots exists (Fig. 5), about 10–20% of
the total spot number. A peculiarity at these electrodes is that
the spots are collected at the butt electrode surface and show
a low tendency to move over the electrode edge (Fig. 6). In
this case the burning voltage is lower and smooth (Fig. 7). The
measurements were carried out with a stabilized current source
with low voltage (120 V) and a low inductance ballast resistor.
With degassed electrodes the noise of the voltage and current
is high. Using impregnated electrodes the noise is small both
of voltage and current.
It is assumed that the large number of spots inside the ring
is due to the increase of the hydrogen desorption by electrode
heating. The ionization of the released hydrogen increases the
Fig. 8. Temporal development of the ring radius r of expanding cathode
amount of ions in the gap and reduces the loss of ions from the spots (measurements with arc discharges of 3.2 kA, impregnation = 0:75):
cathode spot jets. Thus, the current is uniformly distributed and
the arc burns more stable. Such an effect is only reported for
the arc spot behavior in the presence of an axial magnetic field. estimated 40–50 m/s at degassed titanium electrodes. The
In strong fields and at high currents the spots also appeared to measurements at impregnated electrodes yield 70–80 m/s.
be uniformly spread over the whole area inside the ring [5]. Another important parameter which can be obtained from
The spot displacement was determined from the high speed high speed frames is the current per spot. The results are
photographs. The ring radius increases faster with the time summarized in Table I. Generally, impregnation of electrodes
than on pure metal electrodes. This is displayed in Fig. 8 reduces the current per spot.
where the temporal development of the spot displacement
from the ignition centre of the arc is shown for degassed and B. Volt-Ampere Characteristic
impregnated titanium electrodes. The current-voltage characteristic was determined when the
Owing to the high arc current the expanding ring is assumed arc discharge was fully developed and current as well as
to be retograde motion in the self-generated magnetic field. voltage were in quasi-stationary state. This was just before
Using the data from Fig. 8 the spot velocity was obtained the arc is running over the electrode edge. As shown in Fig. 9
by taking the first derivation of the curves. In this way we the arc characteristic of impregnated electrode differs from
LOGATCHEV et al.: BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC DISCHARGES
TABLE I
CURRENT PER SPOT FOR DIFFERENT IMPREGNATION AND ARC CURRENTS
Fig. 9. Volt-Ampere characteristic of discharges with hydrogen impregnated
4
( ) and with degassed ( ) electrodes (electrode distance 6 mm).
that of pure (degassed) electrodes. At degassed electrodes the
volt-ampere characteristic is linear whereas at impregnated
electrodes the characteristic is divided in two parts with
different slope. Except for the current from 600 A to 1.5 kA
with impregnated electrode the arc voltage is smaller by 1–3 V.
A preliminary interpretation of the nonlinear slope in the
volt-ampere-characteristic at impregnated electrodes reveals
that during the development of the discharge the mean current
density at the electrode surface increases slower than the
arc current. Thus, at small currents the amount of liberated
hydrogen is low and only weakly ionized. This leads to a low
conductivity inside the electrode space and causes a faster
voltage increase.
At high currents the discharge is extended over the whole
electrode surface. The current density increases proportionally
to the current. This caused an enhanced ionization of hydrogen
and leads to higher negative anode potential which reduces
the arc voltage [6].
The dependence of the voltage on the impregnation for
low and high currents is presented in Fig. 10. The voltage
is reduced for impregnated electrodes. The results agree with
measurements on hydrogen-impregnated titanium layers de-
posited on Cu electrodes [7].
The behavior of the voltage as shown in Fig. 10 offers
a simple method for checking the hydrogen content of the
electrode. Since the voltage is correlated with the gas content it
can be a measure for the starvation of the surface layers. Thus,
897
(a)
(b)
Fig. 10. Dependence of the arc voltage on the level of impregnation . (a)
Low current (I = 100 A) and (b) high current (I = 3:1 kA).
this effect can be used for the controlling the impregnation
during the discharge.
C. Erosion
The erosion behavior of impregnated electrodes was an-
alyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Fig. 11 shows
scanning electron microscope photographs of the surface struc-
tures for different levels of hydrogen impregnation.
The degassed samples without impregnation show
large erosion tracks consisting of overlapping craters. The
molten area is smooth and the diameters reach up to 50 m.
The rims are partly deposited with large particles up to a size
of about 30 m. The increase of the hydrogen content of the
samples changed the erosion structure. The craters become
smaller. A large number of small single craters is dispersed
over the electrode surface.
Due to cathode erosion the anode surface is covered by
titanium, but this thin layer can only capture a small amount
of hydrogen released during arcing. However, the use of
an impregnated cathode increases the current level occurring
anode spot formation. For degassed electrode the critical
current is about 2.2 kA whereas at impregnated cathodes
this current is 5 kA. The influence and the role of anode
impregnation was not investigated in this work, but will be
the subject in further research.
To obtain quantitative data on the cathodic erosion of
hydrogen impregnated electrodes the total mass loss (gas and
898 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO. 4, AUGUST 1999

Fig. 11. Erosion tracks at various hydrogen impregnation : The size of views is 225 m 2 225 m.

metal) was determined. The erosion rates are given in Fig. 12.
The graph indicates a minimum of the total erosion rate
at The general trend is that impregnation of the
electrode can reduce the erosion up to a factor of three.
During repeated arcing the hydrogen content of the surface
layer is changed due to heating by the arc. However, the
impregnated electrodes have a large reserve of hydrogen as
demonstrated by a cross section of the electrode (Fig. 13).
The dark area marks the hydrogen impregnation of the metal
matrix. We estimate that a charge of more than C can
be transferred without considerable effect on the erosion rate
when hydrogen diffusion to the surface is activated.
During low current dc arcs the gas pressure raise in the arc
chamber was registered. The gas release after ten
discharges at impregnated electrodes yields 6.4 10 mbar
l/As for and 7.3 10 mbar l/As for ,
respectively, thus considerably higher than for nonimpregnated
metals that typically yield 10 mbar l/As [8]. The gas release
LOGATCHEV et al.: BEHAVIOR OF VACUUM ARC DISCHARGES
Fig. 12. Erosion rate in dependence on hydrogen impregnation
Fig. 13. Cross section of a hydrogen impregnated electrode. (Dark areas
mark the hydrogen content.)
corresponds to a mass loss of about 7 g/As. This means that
about 30% of the total erosion rate is due to gas release, thus
the metallic part is lowered.
It is known that the macroparticle output is the main
mass loss component of the erosion process [9]. Therefore,
collecting probes were mounted in the cathode plane to analyze
particles leaving the cathode.
After arcing they were viewed by SEM. The outcome of
measurements is that the number and size of the particles are
low in the cathode plane. Fig. 14 shows a typical image of
the found droplets. The particle sizes are below 5 m. In [9]
particle diameters up to 60 m were measured at pure metal
electrodes. Thus, we assume that another reason of reduced
erosion is due to changes of droplet emission.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Gas impregnation leads to higher spot velocity and lower
arc voltages. Hence the electrodes are more uniformly eroded,
and the power consumption by the electrodes is reduced.
A part of the erosion is in gaseous form, thus the metallic
erosion becomes smaller especially the particle emission. Gas
impregnation can hence extend the lifetime of the electrodes.
899
:
Fig. 14. SEM-photograph of particles emitted from impregnated electrode.
The size of view is 25 m 2
25 m.
REFERENCES
[1] M. M. Antonova and P. A. Morossova, Preparing Chemistry of Hydrids.
Kiev, Ukraine: Naukova Dumka, 1976.
[2] E. Fromm and E. Gebhardt, Gase und Kohlenstoff in Metallen. Berlin,
Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1976.
[3] R. L. Boxman, P. J. Martin, and D. M. Martin, Handbook of Vacuum
Arc Science and Technology. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes, 1995.
[4] J. C. Sherman, R. Webster, J. E. Jenkins, and R. Holmes, “Cathode spot
motion in high-current vacuum arcs on copper electrodes,” J. Phys. D,
Appl. Phys., vol. 8, pp. 696–702, 1975.
[5] M. S. Agarwal and R. Holmes, “Cathode spot motion in high-current
vacuum arcs under self-generated azimuthal and applied axial magnetic
fields,” J. Phys. D, Appl. Phys., vol. 17, pp. 743–756, 1984.
[6] G. A. Dyuzhev, G. A. Lyubimov, and S. M. Shkol’nik, “Conditions of
the anode spot formation in a vacuum arc,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.,
vol. 11, pp. 36–45, Mar. 1983.
[7] A. A. Logatchev and S. M. Shkol’nik, “High-current vacuum arc
discharge with gas-filled electrodes,” in Proc. XVIth Int. Symp. Disch.
Elec. Insul. Vacuum, G. A. Mesyats, Ed. Moscow-St. Petersburg,
Russia, 1994, pp. 149–152.
[8] B. Jüttner, H. Pursch, and P. Siemroth, “Gas release caused by arcs in
vacuum interrupters” (in German), Wiss.-Techn. Mitt. IPH, vol. 19, pp.
5–8, 1978.
[9] J. E. Daalder, “Components of cathode erosion in vacuum arcs,” J. Phys.
D, Appl. Phys., vol. 9, pp. 2379–2395, 1976.
Alexander A. Logatchev, for a photograph and biography, see this issue,
p. 835.
Vasiliy P. Afanas’ev was born in Likchoslavl, Rus-
sia, in 1946. He graduated from the Physical Faculty
of Leningrad State University, Russia, in 1970 and
received the Candidate of Physical-Mathematical
Sciences degree from A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical
Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1976.
Since 1970, he has been working at the A.F.
Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Charged Particles
Optics group and in 1984, he joined the Laboratory
of Low Temperature Plasma Physics. His main
efforts were devoted to the study of various electron-
optics devices and then to plasma dynamics and to nonequilibrium plasma
thermodynamics in connection with high-current arcs.
900
Sergey M. Shkol’nik, for a photograph and biography, see this issue, p. 835.
Burkhard Jüttner was born in Prague,Czechoslovakia, on June 27, 1938.
He received the diploma in physics and the Ph.D. degree from Humboldt
University Berlin in 1962 and 1971, respectively.
From 1962–1991, he was with the Academy of Sciences Berlin, then with
the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Berlin, and now with Humboldt
University Berlin. He is working on gas discharge physics and plasma-wall
interaction.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO. 4, AUGUST 1999
Heinz Pursch was born in Biesenthal, Germany, in 1953. He received the
M.S. degree from Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, in 1976 and the
Ph.D. degree from the Academy of Sciences, Berlin, in 1985.
From 1976 to 1991, he was with the former Central Institute of Electron
Physics, Berlin, where he was involved in vacuum arc research and current
interruption phenomena. During 1992, he was with the Institute of Welding
Technique of the Technical University, Braunschweig, Germany, where he
studied physical processes at welding electrodes. Since 1993, he has been with
the research group Electrode Processes at the Institute of Physics, Humboldt
University Berlin, and engaged in research on vacuum arcs and high pressure
discharges.