Note: Stability and lifetime of scandium deuteride film cathode in a vacuum arc ion source Available to Purchase

This paper reports the properties of the plasma and gas produced in a vacuum arc discharge with scandium deuteride (ScD_1.8) film cathodes. The thickness of the ScD_1.8 film influences the quantity of the gases released from the cathode material. The deuterium gas releasing in the discharge process was in a depth range from the cathode surface to the cathode interior, that is, between 3 and 6 μm. Surprisingly, after discharge, the deuterium ion ratio remains the same in the film with different thicknesses. That indicates that the release of deuterium gas in a 3 μm-thick ScD_1.8 film is enough for ionization. In addition, as the number of discharge increases, the stability of atomic fraction ratio gets worse and the ratio of deuterium ions decreases.