Hollow anode plasma source for highcurrent electron beam generation

Abstract

Summary form only given. We report on results of a large cross-sectional area (~170 cm2), high-current (~1000 A), uniform electron beam generation using a hollow anode plasma source at pressure of ~8times10-5 torr, in a diode supplied with an accelerating pulse of 300 kV and ~300 ns duration. The hollow anode discharge was sustained for ~10 mus by seven BaTi based ferroelectric plasma sources. The resistive decoupling of each plasma source produces a uniform plasma density distribution at the hollow anode output grid at a discharge current les1000 A. It was found that the hollow anode plasma is characterized by a density of ~1012 cm-3, an electron temperature of ~8 eV and a group of fast electrons with energy of ~50 eV. It was shown that an increase in the hollow anode output grid potential allows one to significantly reduce the plasma pre-filling of the accelerating gap