Production of high current particle beams by low pressure spark discharges

Abstract

On the basis of low pressure spark discharges a new type of a particle accelerator as been developed. It produces pulsed ion as well as electron beams of high intensities in a gas atmosphere at pressures of the order of 1 mbar. The method was used to produce in hydrogene at particle energies of about 70 keV an electron beam with a current density of more than 106A/cm 2 at 140A total current. It is shown that magnetic confinement by the pinch effect takes place in the discharge. Discharge times smaller than 5 ns and spark frequencies up to 2 MHz can be obtained.

A simple model of a glow discharge electron beam for materials processing

“…Several types of cold cathode glow discharges have been utilized to produce pulsed [1]- [4] as well as CW electron beams [5], [6]. The beams produced by these discharges have been used for various materials processing applications, including annealing [7]- [9], thin film deposition [10]- [12], and the etching of diamond films [13].…”

Pseudospark Experiments: Cherenkov Interaction and Electron Beam Post-Acceleration

“…Coherence of the generated radiation arises due to bunching of electrons in phase with respect to the electromagnetic wave. For values of the beam and waveguide parameters relevant to this experiment, the force exerted on the electrons by the waveguide mode was dominated by the resonant space-charge force, so the maser operated in a Raman-type regime, with strongest amplification of the waveguide mode expected when it was resonant with the slow space-charge wave of the beam, i.e., when the angular frequency and the axial wavenumber of the waveguide mode satisfy (1) where is the axial electron velocity, is the relativistic factor, is the plasma frequency, is the electron density, , is the relative velocity, is the total electron velocity, is the speed of light, and and are the electronic charge and rest mass, respectively. and must also, of course, satisfy the characteristic equation for a dielectric-lined cylindrical waveguide, which for a mode is as in [7].…”

“…P SEUDOSPARK (PS) discharge [1]- [3] experiments to generate a low-temperature plasma for use as a copious source of electrons have been carried out at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K. [4], [5]. The plasma can be regarded as a low-work function surface that facilitates electron extraction.…”

X-ray emission as a diagnostic from pseudospark-sourced electron beams

“…Since its conception as an electron beam (e-beam) source at the university of Erlangen in 1978 [1], the pseudospark discharge has been proven to be of note both as an e-beam source and for its use in high-power switching applications [2,3]. The discharge operates within a hollow cathode / planar anode configuration on the left-hand side of the hollow cathode analog to the Paschen minimum, typically at pressures of 6.5 -65 Pa.…”