Comparative simulation studies of plasma cathode electron (PCE) gun

Abstract

Pseudospark discharge based plasma cathode has capability to provide high current density electron beam during discharge process. In this paper an effort has been made to simulate the breakdown processes in the pseudospark discharge based plasma cathode electron gun. The two-dimensional plasma simulation codes VORPAL and OOPIC-Pro have been used and results are compared. The peak discharge current in the plasma cathode electron gun is found to be dependent on aperture size, hollow cathode dimensions, anode voltage and seed electrons energy. The effect of these design parameters on the peak anode current has been analysed by both the codes and results matches well within 10% variation. For the seed electron generation an electron beam trigger source is used to control the discharge process in the hollow cathode cavity. The time span of trigger source has been varied from 1-100 ns to analyze the effect on the peak anode current.