Formation of 1.4 MeV runaway electron flows in air using a solid-state generator with 10 MV/ns voltage rise rate

Abstract

Fulfillment of the condition that the voltage rise time across an air gap is comparable with the time of electron acceleration from a cathode to an anode allows a flow of runaway electrons (REs) to be formed with relativistic energies approaching that determined by the amplitude of the voltage pulse. In the experiment described here, an RE energy of 1.4 MeV was observed by applying a negative travelling voltage pulse of 860-kV with a maximum rise rate of 10 MV/ns and a rise time of 100-ps. The voltage pulse amplitude was doubled at the cathode of the 2-cm-long air gap due to the delay of conventional pulsed breakdown. The above-mentioned record-breaking voltage pulse of ∼120 ps duration with a peak power of 15 GW was produced by an all-solid-state pulsed power source utilising pulse compression/sharpening in a multistage gyromagnetic nonlinear transmission line.