抄録
In order to clarify the instability and chopping phenomena of a low current in the vacuum, we observed the phenomena by changing parameters such as the arcing time, the breaking current, the gap distance or the parallel circuit parameters. We measured instability initiation current, chopping current, arc voltage, arc voltage oscillation peak and the transient recovery voltage values by using copper, copper chromium and silver tungsten carbide electrodes.
It was found that the instability initiation current and the chopping current increases with arcing time and decreases with the breaking current amplitude and the gap distance. It was also found the chopping current, the arc voltage oscillation peak and the transient recovery voltage are dependent on the parallel circuit parameters, but the instability initiation current and arc voltage are not dependent on them. We also found that the instability phenomena depend first of all on the cathode material.
