Observation of a local area of heated plasma in cathode jet of a vacuum spark
M. F. Artamonov, V. I. Krasov, V. L. Paperny
Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia
An image has been obtained of the cathode jet of a low voltage vacuum spark with a store voltage at the range of 0.5—2.5 kV, the discharge current being less than 10 kA and a semi-period about of 2 ms. The image was formed by means of a pinhole at surface of a microchannel plate (MCP), that allows to record the ultraviolet and the X-ray radiation with the quants energy exceeding 10 eV. It was found that the radiating region of plasma has a from of a bright core embedded in a low intensive shell. This core was placed at 2 mm apart the cathode and as the discharge current increases the radiation region takes a form of column of 3—4 mm length and less than 1 mm in diameter.
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