Generation of plasma in a pulsed non-self-sustained glow discharge with a hollow cathode with an area of ≥2 m² at gas pressures of 0.4–1 Pa was studied experimentally. At an auxiliary arc-discharge current of 100 A and a main discharge voltage of 240 V, a pulse-periodic glow discharge with a current amplitude of 370 A, pulse duration of 340 μs, and repetition rate of 1 kHz was obtained. The possibility of creating a uniform gas-discharge plasma with a density of up to 10¹² cm⁻³ and an electron temperature of 1 eV in a volume of >0.2 m³ was demonstrated. Such plasma can be efficiently used to treat material surfaces and generate pulsed ion beams with a current density of up to 15 mA/cm².

In the paper the principles of generation of low temperature capacitively coupled in a vacuum chamber of a large size with the use of original low-pressure arc discharges are considered. The designs...

The paper considers a plasma source based on a low-pressure (≈1 Pa) high-current (up to 450 A) non-self-sustained glow discharge with a hollow cathode of volume ≈0.2 m³. The research data are presented on the ignition stability of the discharge, on its main parameters, and on the radial and azimuthal plasma inhomogeneity varying with the pressure, discharge voltage and current, and anode-to-cathode area ratio at a plasma density of ≈10¹⁸ m⁻³ and an ionization degree of ≈1%. The beam plasma formations synthesized in such an electrode system of non-self-sustained glow discharge with a hollow cathode are interesting both from a scientific and technical point of view.

The paper presents the study results of CrN/TiN multi-layer coatings, as well as single-layer TiN and CrN coatings on Cr12MoV cold work die steel deposited by the vacuum-arc plasma-assisted method. Three CrN/TiN coatings of 8-, 16-, and 32-layers were deposited, in which the thickness of each layer was 500 nm, 250 nm and 125 nm, respectively. All of the coatings reveal a face-centered cubic structure with highly oriented (111) growth. The hardness of the CrN/TiN multi-layer coatings was about 27 GPa. Changing the architecture of CrN/TiN multi-layer coatings by reducing the thickness of the CrN and TiN layers from 500 nm to 125 nm promotes a smooth decrease in both the wear parameter and the coefficient of friction. By using an X-ray phase analysis with synchrotron radiation, it was found that 32-layer CrN/TiN coating retained thermal stability during heating in air to a temperature of 1120–1125 °C, and in a vacuum at least to a temperature of 1200 °C.

This article describes a plasma-generating system based on a non-self-sustained glow discharge with external electron injection and a hollow cathode in the shape of a tube with an internal diameter of 25 mm and a length of 300 mm made of stainless steel AISI 321. It is proved that the parameters of the non-self-sustained glow discharge under (0.2-1) Pa, (100-280) V, and (2-6) A depend on the auxiliary discharge current to a great extent, which is due to the determining influence of electrons injected from the auxiliary discharge plasma on the physical processes in the main discharge. The study of uniformity of temperature distribution on the hollow cathode walls has shown that it can reach ±10% of the average value and greatly depends not only on electric characteristics of the discharge but also on its working pressure. The study further demonstrates that such discharge can burn not only in elongated hollow rectilinear cathodes but also in hollow cathodes of a complex shape produced by welding two tubes at a 90% angle. The efficiency of using emitted electrons to sustain discharge and uniformity of temperature distribution on the walls is improved in the latter configuration. The discharge can be used for ion plasma nitriding of inner surfaces with treatment uniformity of ±8.5% of the average value for complex-shaped hollow cathodes. The mean thickness of the nitrided layer after 1 h of processing steel AISI 321 at 630 °C was ≈50 μm and the hardness of the nitrided layer exceeded the original value by ≈3 times.