Cathodic Vacuum Arc Plasma of Thallium

Thallium arc plasma was investigated in a vacuum arc ionsource. As expected from previous consideration of cathode materials inthe Periodic Table of the Elements, thallium plasma shows lead-likebehavior. Its mean ion charge state exceeds 2.0 immediately after arctriggering, reaches the predicted 1.60 and 1.45 after about 100 microsecand 150 microsec, respectively. The most likely ion velocity is initially8000 m/s and decays to 6500 m/s and 6200 m/s after 100 microsec and 150microsec, respectively. Both ion charge states and ion velocities decayfurther towards steady state values, which are not reached within the 300microsec pulses used here. It is argued that the exceptionally high vaporpressure and charge exchange reactions are associated with theestablishment of steady state ion values