Effect of ion collision on separation between light and heavy ions in multi-component vacuum arc

In multi-component vacuum arc discharge, light ions and heavy ions usually have different spatial distributions of density and velocity. Previous research has suggested that the difference in spatial distribution of light and heavy ions is due to the mixing effect of cathode spot jet. However, in this work, the ion collision is found to be an important factor leading to the separation of light and heavy ions. In this paper, multi-fluid model is used to study the effect of ion collisions on separation mechanism in multi-component vacuum arc. The simulation results show that, during the jet mixing process, the collisions between different ions will reduce the velocity of light ions, and greatly increase the density and temperature. As a result, the pressure expansion of light ions is significantly enhanced. In addition, the collision between different ions will also increase the size of jet mixing region for light ions, which makes the plasma jet of light ions mixing more fully. These effects make their isotropic expansion dominant, and the ion density at the center is not much different from that at the edge. However for heavy ions, the collision between different ions has little influence on their movement. The pressure is far less than the inertia force, so the density of heavy ion mainly distributes along the convection direction, and the center is greater than the edge. This is the main separation mechanism of ion angular flux. It is also found there are three main factors leading to the separation of light and heavy ions: ion mass, ion density and ion temperature. The separation effect can be enhanced by increasing ion temperature, decreasing ion density and selecting electrode components with significant differences in elemental mass. This paper provides an insight into the mechanism of ion separation in multi-component vacuum arc.