382 IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and ElecfricalInsulafion Vol. 4 No.

4, Augusf 1997

Anode Modes in Vacuum Arcs

H. Craig Miller
Bellevue. WA

ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the five different anode discharge modes which can occur in a vacuum
arc. These modes are diffuse arc (low current, with or without anode sputtering), footpoint
(intermediate current), and anode spot or intense arc (high current). Descriptions of the vari-
ous modes are presented, based primarily on experimental results. The hot anode vacuum arc
mode, which occurs only with thermally isolated anodes, is also described. The effects of exter-
nal magnetic fields on anode modes are briefly stated. Cathode modes and arc column modes
are also discussed, primarily as they correspond to anode modes.

1. INTRODUCTION of the boundaries between the different regions depend strongly up-
on the electrode material, the electrode and gap geometry, and the cur-
HE main emphasis in this review is on the different modes of ex-
rent waveform. For example, more refractory electrode materials would
istence of vacuum arcs at the anode, especially describing the ap-
shift the mode boundaries towards longer gaps and higher currents,
pearance of the arc at the anode in the various modes. The vacuum arcs
considered generally are the most common type with the anode in good as would geometries with greater ratios of electrode diameter to gap
length. Short arc durations (pulses) would shift the modes towards
thermal and electrical contact with the surroundings, and with no exter-
higher currents, long pulses (or dc arcs) towards smaller currents.
nal magnetic fields. Brief comments will be made on the effects of ap-
plied magnetic fields on the anode modes. The relationships between A detailed discussion of the reasons for dividing anode phenomena
anode modes and the corresponding cathode and column modes also into these particular modes appears elsewhere [2].
will be presented. A general discussion of anode phenomena (experi-
mental and theoretical), with more detailed descriptions of particular
2.1. DIFFUSE ARC MODES
papers and additional references, is available in a recent review [l]. The diffuse arc mode region in Figure 1 actually represents two low
current modes. In one mode the anode is basically inert, acting only as
a collector of the flux emitted from the cathode (electrons, ions, atoms,
particles). A second mode occurs in arcs with anodes of readily sput-
/ANODE SPOT
terable materials, where a flux of sputtered particles is emitted from the
anode [3-91, which is still basically a passive collector, though not inert.
Throughout most of the diffuse arc mode region (Figure 1)the behav-
ior of the vacuum arc is controlled by cathode phenomena. The material
sputtered from the anode has only a slight effect on the overall behavior
of the arc.
In the diffuse arc mode at low currents a few (perhaps only one) mov-
ing spots appear on the cathode, while a diffuse glow originates at the
cathode and reaches to the anode. The anode itself remains dark (i.e.
INTENSE ARC
nonluminous). When the arc current increases, the number of cathode
spots increases approximately linearly with arc current, while the dif-
ARC CURRENT fuse glow in the interelectrode gap becomes brighter, but the anode re-
Figure 1. Anode discharge modes as a function of current and gap mains nonluminous. At higher currents in the diffuse arc mode some
length. constriction of the interelectrode plasma occurs [lo-131.
In the diffuse arc modes the arc voltage is relatively low and quiet
2. ANODE MODES (ie,,any high frequency components of the arc voltage are small com-
A qualitative sketch of the occurrence regions for the various an- pared to the mean arc voltage). But when the arc current increases the
ode modes of a vacuum arc is given in Figure 1. The exact locations arc voltage also increases, developing
- - a fairly
. large
- noise component
1070-9878/97/$3.00 @ 199fIEEE
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 4 No. 4, August 1997 383

(14-211. Electrode materials with a higher vapor pressure tend to ex- The occurrence of an anode footpoint is usually accompanied by the
hibit less arc noise [17,18,22]. appearance of an appreciable noise component of the arc voltage and of-
The anode drop V, is defined as the change in the arc potential from ten by a significant increase in the mean arc voltage [14,24,25,32-371.
its value in the interelectrode plasma near the anode to its value at the This increase in arc voltage is caused primarily by an increase in the an-
anode. This change in potential has traditionally been called the anode ode drop, which typically changes from somewhat negative in the dif-
drop, although it may have a negative, zero, or positive value. Shkol’nik fuse mode to somewhat positive in the footpoint mode. This increase of
found [23] that the anode drop was negative at low currents in the dif- the anode drop implies a significant increase in the power input to the
fuse arc mode, but decreased in magnitude (became less negative) with anode enabling localized surface melting and footpoint formation.
increasing current. An increase in overall arc voltage with increasing There is a significant difference in temperature between a stable an-
current was caused by this change in the anode drop combined with an ode spot and a stable footpoint, whose temperatures are boiling and
increase in the interelectrode plasma fall. melting, respectively. However, it is quite probable that conditions for
In most cases the temperature of the anode remains relatively low an arc in the footpoint mode can be such as to produce rapid heating
while the arc is in the diffuse arc mode. However, the temperature of of the footpoint to temperatures well above melting, even approaching
the anode surface can increase very rapidly when the arc changes modes boiling.
from a low current diffuse arc mode to a higher current mode. Tempera- Since a significant quantity of neutral anode material is evolved in-
ture rise rates of l o 7 K/s [16] and lo8 K/s [24,25] have been measured. to the near anode region when the arc is in the footpoint mode [24,25],
Even higher rise rates of lo9 K/s were measured for relatively short du- while the high and noisy arc voltage indicates that appreciable energy
ration (5 ps) pulse arcs [26]. losses are occurring in the plasma, it is quite probable that an apprecia-
In the diffuse arc mode with anode sputtering, most of the sputtered ble portion of this neutral flux is ionized, although specific experimental
atoms will be ionized by the electron flux. Since the sputtered atoms confirmation of this assumption is lacking.
leave the anode with low velocities, this implies that they are ionized In the footpoint mode noticeable erosion of anode material occurs [22,
close to the anode surface, which results in a steep gradient in the densi- 24,25,34], which now exceeds the material deposited by the cathode
ty of sputtered atoms near the anode [9]. These anode ions will have low flux. The erosion of anode material in vapor or molten form from the
energies and are thus readily distinguished from the ions of the cathode footpoint(s) usually is more than the erosion from cathode ion sputter-
flux which have much higher energies [27,28]. Throughout most of the ing. The overall net loss of material from the anode is still fairly low.
region of the diffuse arc mode the density of cathode ions near the anode
normally is greater than the density of anode ions. As the arc approach- 2.3. ANODE SPOT MODE
es the boundaries of the diffuse arc mode the density of anode ions near
the anode becomes comparable to the cathode ion density there. In the The anode spot mode is a high current mode with considerable anode
less-common diffuse arc mode without anode sputtering, no anode ions activity. In the anode spot mode a more or-less well defined arc column
are produced. appears in the interelectrode gap, while many (perhaps individually in-
distinguishable) cathode spots cover the cathode. One large or (less of-
In the diffuse arc mode with no anode sputtering, erosion of the an- ten) several small [26,32,35,36,38] very bright spots are present on the
ode is zero. Condensation of the flux of ions and neutrals from the cath- anode. If several small spots are present, with a sufficient increase in
ode upon the surface of the anode causes the anode to gain material, arc current or arcing time, they will usually combine or merge to form
which can be defined as a negative erosion. In the more common diffuse a single anode spot [35,38].
arc mode with anode sputtering, slight anode erosion will occur. How-
ever, for typical electrode materials and cathode ion energies [9,29-311 Temperatures of the anode spot are far above the melting point, in-
an incoming cathode ion will sputter less than one atom of anode ma- deed near the atmospheric boiling point [14,16,26,39-421. An anode
terial, while a neutral atom will sputter a negligible amount. Thus the spot differs from a footpoint in being much hotter (near the electrode
net anode erosion will still be negative even though anode sputtering is material boiling point rather than its melting point), generally much
occurring. larger, and evolves much greater quantities of anode material.
In the anode spot mode the arc voltage is frequently low and quiet
2.2. FOOTPOINT MODE but may remain relatively high and noisy
The footpoint mode is an intermediate current mode where the an- The presence or absence of an anode jet may have a significant effect
ode begins to take an active role in the discharge. In the footpoint mode upon the arc voltage noise, but the evidence is contradictory. Yokoya-
the interelectrode gap is mostly filled with a fairly bright diffuse glow ma and Kashitani had a strong anode jet present in their multiple anode
(appearing much the same as the diffuse arc mode at higher currents). spot mode with a large arc noise [32] In contrast, Heberlein and Gorman
However, in contrast to the diffuse arc mode, where the anode is nonlu- [43] found that when an anode jet formed, the arc voltage trace became
minous, in the footpoint mode small bright spots appear on the anode. smooth, and was usually lower than when no anode spot was present.
There may be several of these spots, or only one. These spots are denot- The probable explanation of these different conclusions lies in an obser-
ed as footpoints. Footpoints are characterized as being small luminous vation of Boxman that the appearance of an anode jet had little effect up-
spots, usually associated with local anode melting and with the appear- on the arc voltage (mean value or noise component) unless the anode jet
ance of anode material in the discharge. either struck the cathode or met a cathode jet [44]. Thus, it seems that
384 Miller: Anode Modes in Vacuum Arcs

an anode jet must shunt the gap in order to appreciably affect the arc Recently a new type of vacuum arc mode has been observed, called
voltage. Harris came to similar conclusions [35]. the anodic vacuum arc [54-561 or the HAVA (hot anode vacuum arc) [57].
Significant quantities of ions are emitted by an anode spot [22,45-511. (The HAVA nomenclature will be used here.) A HAVA occurs when suffi-
It should be noted that these ions are not emitted directly from the sur- cient material is evolved from the anode to sustain the vacuum arc, with
face of the anode, but rather are produced by ionization in the anode little or no cathode material being required. If the anode is thermally
spot plasma of neutrals evaporated (or sputtered) from the anode, al- isolated from its surroundings, moderate arc power (as 17 V, 25 A) is
though the anode ions are probably produced very close to the surface sufficient to sustain a HAVA.A HAVA usually starts as a diffuse vacuum
4
of the anode spot. For moderate currents ( w to 3 kA) the anode ion arc, initially burning in material evolved from the cathode, but as the
anode heats up the discharge changes to a HAVA.
flux appears to be a linear function of arc current, thus behaving sim-
ilarly to the cathode ion flux. However, the anode ion flux starts from The temperature of the anode will be high enough to provide by evap-
zero at the critical current for anode spot formation, then increases more oration the quantity of anode material necessary to support the HAVA.
rapidly than the cathode ion flux [45,46]. For most anode materials this implies that the anode temperature will
With relatively moderate current anode spot arcs a significant frac- lie between melting and boiling for the particular material.
tion, if not most, of the material eroded from the anode by the anode The arc voltage in a HAVA is low and quiet. From 4 to 20% (typically
spot leaves the anode region as ions [45,52]. At sufficiently high cur- loo/,) of the anode plasma flux is ionized. These anode ions are singly
rents in the anode spot mode much material is eroded from the anode in charged, and created at anode potential [55,58].
the form of macroparticles, droplets, etc., so while the amount of anode
In a HAVA the anode is brightly luminous, while the interelectrode
ions produced continues to increase with current, the fractional ioniza-
gap is filled with a diffuse glow. The anode radiation is basically black
tion of the material eroded from the anode decreases.
body, while the interelectrode glow tends to have colors characteristic
In the anode spot mode severe erosion of the anode is present. Often of the anode material. Because the anode is providing the material in
the longer the arc remains in the anode spot mode the greater the erosion which the arc burns, relatively little cathode activity occurs. Since the
rate of the anode. This can happen because the anode spot increases in energies of the ions (and neutrals) coming from the anode are general-
size. ly much lower than for a similar cathodic vacuum arc, sputtering at the
cathode is probably negligible, and the cathode of a HAVA may be con-
2.4. INTENSE ARC MODE sidered as relatively inert. The cathode must still serve as a source of
electrons, but under HAVA conditions much of the required energy is
The intense arc mode is also a high current mode where the anode
provided by the anode and interelectrode plasma, so the cathode drop
is very active. In the intense arc mode very bright luminosity appears
is much less than in other vacuum arcs. Thus in the HAVA, the cathode
to cover the anode, the cathode, and fill the interelectrode gap. The in-
may be viewed as a relatively passive electrode.
tense arc mode differs from the anode mot mode in two main remects:

separate-anode and cathode jets cannot be distinguished. The intense

arc mode occurs at shorter gap lengths than does the anode spot mode. 2.6. OVERALL COMPARISON OF
While anode spots exist in both the intense and anode spot modes, there ANODE MODES
are sufficient differences between the two modes to justify characteriz-
ing them separately. The characteristics of the different anode modes may be compared in
Table 1.
The intense arc mode is characterized by severe erosion at the an-
ode and cathode. This severe cathode erosion has several causes: the The diffuse arc mode, anode spot mode, and intense arc mode can
increase in electrical power dissipated at the cathode, the increased ra- appear in any particular vacuum discharge given the proper choice of
diant energy from the anode, and the ablation of the cathode surface current waveform and gap. The HAVA can be obtained as well by prop-
caused by the mechanical and thermal effects of an anode jet impinging er thermal isolation of the anode. All three modes and the HAVA mode
upon the cathode [53]. can persist for long times given appropriate conditions. This is because
these modes have relatively large regions of stability, that is regions
2.5. HAVA MODE where moderate changes in input power to the anode are matched by
corresponding increases in anode power losses. For example, in the an-
The anode modes shown in Figure 1 represent the usual condition ode spot mode the main anode energy loss mechanism is by vaporiza-
where the anode is either in good thermal contact with a heat sink, or tion of anode material, although appreciable amounts of energy can be
is relatively so massive that its overall temperature does not increase dissipated by radiation, conduction, melting and heating of anode ma-
greatly during arcing. In such conditions the development of an anode terial. A moderate increase or decrease in input power is readily com-
spot requires quite high local power densities, and this usually means pensated for by a moderate change in the rate of vaporization of anode
high total arc power. material, since the vaporization energy per unit mass is quite large. In
IEEE Transactions on Dielectricsand Electrical Insulafion Vol.4 No. 4, August 1997 385

Table 1. Characteristics of various anode modes. * Anode gains cathode material, so total anode erosion is negative. ** Cathode erosion increases with
current.
Mode arc voltage luminous areas on anode erosion
mean noise
none - - <melting none* slight**
none - - <melting slight* slight**
high 1to many small moderate melting low slight**
1to few med to large bright boiling mod to high low to mod
med med
intense arc med low 1 large bright boiling high high

comparison the footpoint mode has a relatively small region of stabil- 30 I I I I I

ity. This is because in the footpoint mode the energy losses are mainly
conduction into the anode and melting of anode material, with a small
contribution from evaporated or sputtered anode material. Much less
I anode jet

I
energy per unit mass is used in melting material than in vaporizing it,
thus while a sharp increase in input power will cause the rate of melting
of anode material to increase, this cannot absorb much of the power in-
crease, so the temperature of the melted material will increase sharply.
The temperatures of the footpoint spots rapidly approach boiling, which
makes transfer to the anode spot mode quite likely. Thus the footpoint
mode usually is a transient stage appearing briefly before the appear-
ance of the anode spot (or possibly the intense arc) mode. However, with
appropriate choices of experimental conditions the footpoint mode may 10 -
be observed without the occurrence of a transition to a higher current
mode [24,25,36,37]. in points
-
2.7. EFFECTS OF MAGNETIC FIELDS diffuse arc
ON ANODE PHENOMENA I I

OO 30 60 90 mT 120
Applying a weak axial magnetic field will usually cause the overall
axial magnetic field
arc voltage to decrease slightly because of reduced plasma loss in the
Figure 2. Appearance diagram for anode region as a function of current
gap and correspondingly greater plasma flow to the anode. However, and axial magnetic field [64].
strong axial magnetic fields will cause constriction of the current, and
for sufficiently strong fields the arc voltage will increase again. Thus ap- modes: anode melting and the anode jet mode at the highest currents.
plying an axial magnetic field to a vacuum gap will produce a minimum Their results are shown in Figure 2.
arc voltage at a particular field value.
The reduction of plasma losses produced by an axial magnetic field Similar work has been done by Schulman and associates [65,66], who
can cause a vacuum arc to remain in the diffuse arc mode at currents for found a linear relationship between the critical peak current for strong
which it would normally have transferred to a footpoint or anode spot anode activity and the magnitude of an axial magnetic field. For exam-
mode [59-631. ple, the critical current for severe anode activity increased from 10 kA
with no magnetic field to 40 kA with B = 100 mT. At sufficiently high
Binz and Muller investigated the effect of axial magnetic fields on an- currents they observed gross anode melting even though the axial mag-
ode modes [64]. With no magnetic field, as the current increased their netic field was sufficient to keep the arc in the diffuse arc mode. This
arcs successively entered the diffuse arc, anode footpoint, and anode jet led them to postulate that because the arc remained diffuse in the pres-
(anode spot) modes. When applying axial magnetic fields of magnitude ence of distributed anode melting, the maximum current that could be
to 50 mT, they observed melting at the anode edges for higher currents applied without anode melting occurring would simply scale with the
in the footpoint mode. At magnetic fields > 100 mT, the cathode ion contact area [65],an observation with significant practical implications
flux was so concentrated at the center of the anode that melting occurred for the design of vacuum interrupters.
there. This was not a footpoint, but a melted spot caused by the high lo-
cal energy density. Thus with magnetic fields of 100 to 120 mT they ob- The usual effect of applying an axial magnetic field to a vacuum arc
served successively anode melting, anode footpoint, and an anode jet is to shift the boundaries between the various modes to higher currents.
when the arc current increased. In this region the boundaries between Although in particular cases the increased energy density resulting from
the respective modes shifted to higher currents with increasing magnet- the arc containment or constriction may cause localized (or distributed)
ic field. For magnetic fields > 120 mT their arcs exhibited only two melting, this does not imply the presence of an additional anode mode.
386 Miller: Anode Modes in VacuumAres

inodes governed mainly by 1 modes govemed mainly by Table 2. Associations of anode and cathode modes.
thermofield emission ~ thermofield emission coupled
with explosive processes
106, I I I II I I I , 1
modes

- electrode
,-. ,03

T-V-mode
1
vapour
Table 3. Associations of anode and column modes.
U
m 2 -
- (vapour
I 10
V-mode 2 modes)

modes
burning
mainly
- in the
gas
2.9. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
COLUMN MODES AND ANODE
I
I
- plasma
MODES
I I I I 1 ' 1 I I I
lo3 IO* 105 106 lo' 108 -
L
109 do id2 1d3 The work of Heberlein and Gorman (HG) [43] on arc columns in vacu-
Current Density [ Alm ]
um arcs complements the anode investigations. They observed five gen-
Figure 3. Cathode discharge modes [67]. eral types of vacuum arc columns: diffuse arc, diffuse column, constrict-
ed column, jet column, and anode jet, (Figure 4). The occurrence of the
2.8. COMPARISON OF ANODE AND various types depended not only on the usual parameters-instantaneous
CATHODE MODES current, gap, and electrode diameter, but also were strongly influenced
by the arc current at the instant of contact separation I , which varied
from 7 to 40 kA. An interesting observation was that anode spot for-
mation occurred independently of the arc appearance. Later investiga-
Anders and Anders have categorized the cathode modes of arcs in
tions by Schulman (and Slade) [68,69] extended HG's work. Schulman
general [67]. Their cathode modes are shown in Figure 3. The cath-
et al. observed similar columnmodes, with an additional bridge column
ode modes pertinent to vacuum arcs are those modes in the upper
mode, which formed upon separation of current carrying contacts and
right quadrant of Figure 3, i.e. cathode modes governed mainly by
persisted for a brief time before transferring to another mode, typically
thermofield emission coupled with explosive emission and which burn
a diffuse arc at low currents, a diffuse column at intermediate currents,
mainly in electrode vapor. Such modes are designated V-modes by An-
and a constricted column at high currents. Since these investigations
ders and Anders. The associations between anode modes and those
were done with drawn arcs, with the increasing gap length the arcs typ-
cathode modes are given in Table 2.
ically changed modes from the diffuse column and constricted column
to the jet column mode, Comparing Figures 1 and 4 suggests that the
I Transition from anode let to diffuse arc anode modes may be related to the column modes as follows (also giv-

E\
22 en in Table 3): diffuse arc modes, diffuse arc or diffuse column; anode
B =O
ax
20 Contact diameter 100 mm spot mode, anode jet or jet column; and the intense arc mode, constrict-
18
ed column or jet column. The anode footpoint mode probably would be
included in the diffuse arc and diffuse column modes, since in the foot-
E l6
Separation of anode Jet
point mode the interelectrode gap plasma is expected to appear much
d 14 the same as at higher currents in the anode diffuse arc mode.
----__
3. CONCLUSION

6
A vacuum arc can exhibit five different anode discharge modes
(Figure 1 and Table 1). Two are low current modes. In the first
mode the anode is basically passive, acting only as a collector of parti-
A
cles emitted from the cathode. If the electrodes are composed of readily
2 sputterable material, a second mode can occur in which a flux of sput-
I I I I I I tered atoms will be emitted by the anode. In both modes the anode ero-
10 20
30 40
Instantaneous Current, I, kA
50 60 sion is negative, ie., the anode gains cathode material. A third mode
Figure 4. Arc appearance. One half-cycleof arcing, 50 to 60 H ~elec-
, is the footpoint mode, characterized by the appearance of one or more
trode diameter 100 mm, I , > 7 kA [43] small luminous spots on the anode. A footpoint has a temperature near
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol.4 No. 4, August 1997 387

the melting point of the anode material and is associated with the evo- [13] V I. Gorokhovskii and V l? Elovikov, "Investigation of the Current Distri-
lution of observable amounts of anode material, but with relatively low bution At the Anode of a Vacuum Arc in a LongitudinalMagnetic Field",
to moderate erosion of the anode. The fourth mode is the anode spot Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys., Vol. 32, pp. 1373-74,1987.
mode. Characteristically an anode spot has a temperature near the at- [14] G. Gundersen, Anode Spot Formation in Vacuum Arcs, Thesis, Norweg.
mospheric boiling point of the anode material and is a copious source Inst. Tech. Trondheim, 1971.
of vapor and ions. In the anode spot mode the anode suffers severe ero- [15] C. W. Kimblin, "Anode Voltage Drop and Anode Spot Formation inDc Vac-
sion. The fifth mode is the intense arc mode. In this mode a n anode spot uum Arcs", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 40, pp. 1744-52,1969.
is also present, but now the severe anode erosion is accompanied by se- [16] R. L. Boxman, "Measurement of Anode Surface Temperature During a
vere erosion of the cathode as well. In the intense arc mode a n anode jet High-Current Vacuum Arc", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 46, pp. 4701-04,1975,
striking the cathode is usually present. [17] S. Kamakshaiah and R. S. N. Rau, "Anode Phenomena in Triggered Vacu-
um Gaps", IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., Vol. 5, pp. 1-6,1977.
The HAVA mode which occurs only with thermally isolated anodes [18] J. A. Rich, L. E. Prescott and J. D. Cobine, "Anode Phenomena in Metal-
was described. The effects of external magnetic fields on anode modes Vapor Arcs At High Currents", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 42, pp. 587-601,1971.
were briefly stated. Cathode modes and arc column modes were also [19] I? Bliiher, "The A-B Transition Behavior of the 50 Hz High-Current Arc in
discussed, primarily as they corresponded to Anode modes. Vacuum On Copper Electrodes", Elektrie, Vol. 29, pp. 50-53,1975.
[20] J. H. Harris, "Electron Density Measurements in Vacuum Arcs At Anode
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Spot Formation Threshold", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 50, pp. 753-57,1979.
[21] J. Kutzner, "The Voltage-Current Characteristics of a Diffusion Vacuum
Prof. K. Moller and Dr. J. V. R. Heberlein kindly provided me with Arc,r, physics, 104 C, pp. 116-23, 1981,
original copies of Figures 2 and 4, respectively
1221 V. N.Barinov, V. K. Goncharov, and A. V. Smirnov, "Photoelectric Method
L .

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