ABSTRACT
The pumping of inert gases in the getter-ion pumps is possible only when the evaporator is switched on, and the areas for its efficient use are thus markedly narrowed. Proposals to use plasma arc evaporators for depositing metallic films, particularly getter films, appeared at the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties. A large number of versions of pumps based on such evaporators operating under both stationary and pulsed conditions were subsequently developed, predominantly in Russia and the Ukraine. The laws governing the actual evaporation of a cathode are of fundamental interest for planning pumps with plasma sources of getter films. The requirement just described is satisfied by power sources with rapidly descending current–voltage characteristics at an open-circuit voltage of 60–70 V. The application of an external magnetic field with a certain configuration, that is the transition to magnetically controlled discharge, significantly increases its stability and improves the technical and economic characteristics of evaporators.
