Influence of the Arched Magnetic Field on the Cathode Erosion Rate of the Vacuum Arc Discharge

Abstract

Vacuum arcs discharge is widely used in industry to coat the parts with wear-resistant, heat-resistant, tribological and decorative coatings. The disadvantage of the method is macroparticle fraction, which is emitted from a cathode spot region. One of the way to suppress the macroparticles is arched magnetic field applied to cathode surface. It is considered that the productivity of the arc evaporators is depended only on cathode material and arc current. In this work we found out that this rule is enforced when the arched magnetic field is used for different meterials (the semiconductor and the set of metals). The possible reasons were considered. The influence of each reason was calculated.