Research on pinching characteristics of electron beams emitted from different cathode surfaces of a rod-pinch diode

Abstract

The particle-in-cell code UNIPIC is used to simulate the working process of a rod-pinch diode and investigate the pinching characteristics of electron beams emitted from different cathode surfaces. The simulation results indicate that the electron beam emitted from the upstream surface pinches better than from other surfaces when all the three surfaces emit electrons. The charge-density deposition on the anode surface peaks at the rod tip while the deposited charge density is approximately uniform over the first 15 mm of the rod before rapidly increasing over the last 3 mm, indicating a large axial extent of electron deposition. For the case of single-surface emission, the pinching quality of the electron beam emitted from the downstream surface is better than those from other surfaces. The charge-density deposition peaks at the rod tip and decreases rapidly off the tip. Based on the relationship of Larmor radius, beam’s self-magnetic field, and the spatial current distribution, the above simulation results are analyzed theoretically. The experiments are performed on the inductive voltage adder to examine the simulations. By comparing the axial distribution of the radiation on the anode rod measured with the pinhole camera and the on-axis forward x-ray dose measured with the LiF thermoluminescent detectors, the simulation results are verified. The electron emission suppression method and the impedance change for each case are investigated or discussed in this paper.