Speaker
Description
Vacuum arc initiation is sensitive to the initial state of the metal electrodes. Surface roughness, oxide thickness, and other surface contaminants impact the arc initiation. In this poster we present results on the impact on arc initiation of dosing metal electrodes with a variety of common gases, such as CO, H2O, O2, Ar, methane, and others. We show results of how the current and voltage stabilities are sometimes impacted via gas dosing. A “first use” phenomena is also always observed in which the arc is more easily initiated. Further, the metal electrodes can be reset via gas dosing to produce a “first use” arc even after many hundreds of arc operations. This observation confirms the important role that surface contamination plays in understanding arc initiation and stability.
This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.