Simulation of the Evaporation of Carbon and Silicon Particles in a Short-Arc Discharge with a Graphite Cathode and a Composite Si/C Anode

The paper presents the results of numerical simulations to study the evaporation of carbon particles from a graphite cathode and silicon particles from a composite Si/C anode in an arc discharge. It is shown that at current density $$2 \times {{10}^{6}}\,\,{{\text{A}} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\text{A}} {{{{\text{m}}}^{2}}}}} \right. \kern-0em} {{{{\text{m}}}^{2}}}}$$ there is intense evaporation of carbon particles from the cathode and silicon from the anode. It is shown that when taking into account the impact and step ionization of silicon atoms, as well as three-body recombination, the dominant type of ions is C+, and Si+ is the third most important ion. The density of neutral carbon particles reaches $$5.8 \times {{10}^{{23}}}\,\,{{{\text{m}}}^{{ - 3}}}$$ its maximum values in the center of the discharge gap, and silicon density reaches $$1.3 \times {{10}^{{23}}}\,\,$$ m−3 near the anode.