Relativistic electron-beam generation in a plasma-filled diode and its interaction with plasma

Abstract

A relativistic electron beam of 150–300 keV, 1–2 kA, and 40–80 ns generated in a plasma-filled diode is injected into a magnetized hydrogen plasma of density 1011–1014 cm−3. Beam-plasma interaction was observed to be strong when the plasma density in the diode and interaction region was ≂1012 cm−3. The effective collision frequency was estimated to be around 10−2 times the ion plasma frequency. The plasma heating levels of ≂1016 eV cm−3 μs−1 were inferred. The observed net current multiplication was explained by two-stream instability.