Electronic Resource
[S.l.]
:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Review of Scientific Instruments
71 (2000), S. 388-398
ISSN:
1089-7623
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
Notes:
A plasma-cathode electron gun based on a moderate pressure (〉5 mTorr) cold-cathode discharge and a high perveance, multiaperture accelerator was previously developed at Hughes Research Laboratories and produced electron beam currents of up to 1 kA at voltages of over 200 kV for pulse lengths of 100 μs. This gun was limited in pulse repetition frequency and duty by the gas-puff system that provided adequate gas pressure in the hollow cathode to operate the glow discharge while keeping the pressure in the beam transport region sufficiently low. We describe a new plasma cathode electron gun (PCE gun) that eliminates this problem by replacing the glow-discharge plasma generator in the electron gun by a low-pressure thermionic discharge in a magnetic multipole confinement chamber. Proper design of the plasma generator and electrical circuit provides high electron-current densities to the accelerator structure at very low gas pressure (〈10−4 Torr). The static gas pressure permits the pulse repetition frequency to be very high (〉1.5 kHz demonstrated) with electron beam currents up to 200 A at voltages up to 120 kV demonstrated. The design and performance of the PCE gun, along with several models used to predict and scale the performance, are discussed. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1150212
Permalink
Library |
Location |
Call Number |
Volume/Issue/Year |
Availability |