Carbon shunting arc and its induced plasma

Abstract

A pulsed carbon arc is produced in a low-pressure gas or vacuum without any external trigger source. The arc is initiated around a carbon rod that is heated using a same power source with the arc. This is called a shunting arc and it is characteristic that the arc is self-initiated and its current of over 1000 A with a sinusoidal waveform is easily attained. Spectroscopic measurement shows that the shunting arc induces a new nitrogen plasma in the chamber. Thus, two different plasmas exist in one shunting arc production process. As a preliminary research of plasma-based ion implantation, pulsed carbon ions are extracted from the arc plasma and implanted into a target placed in the chamber by directly applying a pulsed high voltage to the target.