Kiloampere and microsecond electron beams from ferroelectric cathodes

Author

Advani, Rahul N. ; Hogge, Jean-Philippe ; Kreischer, Kenneth E. ; Mulligan, William J. ; Temkin, Richard J. ; Kirkman, G.F. ; Jiang, B. ; Reinhardt, N.

Author_Institution

Plasma Sci. & Fusion Center, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

26

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

8/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1347

Lastpage

1352

Abstract

We report experimental results of the operation of two ferroelectric cathodes of relatively large size. The first cathode had a diameter of 10.2 cm and was built in the Pierce cathode geometry by Integrated Applied Physics (IAP). It achieved emission currents of up to 1.2 kA (15.3 A/cm²) at voltages up to 100 kV, in 150 ns pulses. The second cathode had an annular shape with a diameter of 11.4 cm and a width of 0.25 cm. It was built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to produce an annular electron beam for use in a Gyrotron microwave source. It operated at currents of up to 10 A (1.1 A/cm²) at 8 kV, in 5 μs pulses. Detailed operating characteristics for each of these electron sources are reported. These results indicate that ferroelectric cathodes can be used to produce electron beams of large area and size, with high total operating current and pulse lengths of several microseconds. These sources should be suitable for use in future microwave generation experiments

Keywords

cathodes; electron beams; electron sources; ferroelectric devices; 1.2 kA; 10 A; 100 kV; 150 ns; 5 mus; 8 kV; Gyrotron microwave source; Pierce cathode geometry; accelerator beams; annular cathodes; annular electron beam; cathode diameter; cathode width; electron beam area; electron beam size; emission currents; ferroelectric cathodes; kiloampere electron beams; microsecond electron beams; microwave generation experiments; operating characteristics; pulse lengths; pulses; total operating current; Cathodes; Electron beams; Electron sources; Ferroelectric materials; Geometry; Gyrotrons; Microwave technology; Physics; Shape; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.725168

Filename

725168