Pseudospark Sourced E- Beam Interaction with a Backward Travelling Wave

Abstract

Summary form only given. Because of its unusual and interesting discharge properties, the pseudospark (ps) has attracted significant attention from diverse fields such as material processing, pulsed-power switching, electron beam generation, free electron masers, ion beam generation, extreme-ultraviolet radiation sources, microthrusters, and pseudospark-triggered Wakefield accelerators, etc. A pseudospark discharge has indeed shown to be a promising source of high brightness, high intensity electron beam pulses. During a pseudospark discharge, a low temperature plasma is formed which acts as a copious source of electrons which can be regarded as a low work function surface that facilitates electron and ion extraction. This paper will present some measurements and results of ps discharge experiments, ps-sourced electron beam experiments. Pulsed electron beams with current intensity over 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> Am <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-2</sup> , high brightness up to 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">12</sup> Am <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-2</sup> rad <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-2</sup> and emittance of tens of mm mrad were produced from a multi-gap pseudospark discharge. The transportation of the pseudospark electron beams in order to produce high peak current, high quality, high-brightness electron beam pulses for interaction with a backward traveling wave resulting in the generation of high power microwave radiation is presented.