Spectroscopic study of vacuum arc plasma expansion

Vacuum breakdown (also known as arc or discharge) occurs when a sufficiently high electric field is applied between two electrodes in vacuum. The discharge is driven by the formation of an intensively glowing plasma at the cathode, which is followed by the ignition of an anode flare that gradually expands and fills the gap. Although it has been shown that the anode electrode does not play a significant role in the breakdown initiation, the nature of the anodic glow is of paramount importance for understanding the breakdown evolution. In this work, we use time- and space-resolved spectroscopy to study the anode flare. By using different anode and cathode materials, we find that excitations from both anode and cathode ions and neutrals contribute to the anodic glow. This implies that the cathodic plasma expands towards the anode without emitting any detectable light and starts glowing only when it reaches and interacts with the anode electrode. This interaction causes the introduction of anodic species in the plasma. The latter starts producing an expanding glow which contains spectra from both the cathode and anode materials and gradually fills the gap as the plasma equilibrates. Finally, we observe that after a breakdown, cathode material deposits on the anode electrode, gradually coating it. After hundreds of breakdowns, this coating covers the anode, resulting in the decay and possible elimination of the anode material signal in the spectra.