Initiation of hot cathode arc discharges by electron confinement in Penning and magnetron configurations

Abstract

The paper describes a method to ignite hot cathode arc discharges by using ’’start-up’’ glow discharges in magnetron and Penning configuration. This method has been shown to provide the ignition of large, tantalum hollow cathode discharges even in a restricted space. It is simple, reliable, and requires lower voltages than some of the other methods.