Transportation of a low-energy, high-current electron beam in a long plasma channel

The results of investigations on the transportation of low-energy (10–30 keV), high-current (/20 kA) electron beam formed in a gun with an explosive-emission cathode and a plasma anode based on high-current reflected discharge are presented. The possibility of transportation of such a beam in a plasma channel of length more than 0.5 m has first been demonstrated. The total energy of the beam per pulse achieved 300 J, which makes up 25% of energy stored in the high-voltage pulse generator. The influence of the current of the reflected discharge on the beam energy density distribution has been investigated, and it has been shown that the improvement of this distribution can be attained by varying the discharge current.