Cleaning Characteristics of Vacuum Arc for Organic Contaminant on Metal Surface

Abstract

An arc in a vacuum was applied to clean a metal surface contaminated with organic matter and its cleaning characteristics were investigated. The cleaning began in the central region of a round area covered with a small vacuum chamber and gradually moved to the peripheral region. The cleaning velocities, defined as the cleaned surface area and the weight of the removed contaminant per second, were measured for various surface densities of the contaminant. The surface layer of the metal was stripped simultaneously during cleaning, and it was revealed that the total erosion rate of the contaminant and the metal is constant and that the thickness of the stripped surface layer is not dependent on the surface density of the contaminant but on the discharge current.