Visualisation of the high-current e-beams on solid surfaces

Natural minerals such as spodumen, calcite, and Mn-doped apatite crystals may serve as suitable low-cost materials for visualization of high-current electron beams. High-intensity luminescence lasting several tens of minutes has been observed when irradiating natural specimen by electron beams with the current density of 10-1000 A/sq.cm, with energy of 100-300 keV, and pulse duration of 2-50 ns. The luminescent images of the beam cross-section provide information on the beam density profiles, while the images taken in the plane parallel to the beam axis make it possible to estimate the beam penetration depth and, therefore, the beam energy. The method is illustrated by examples of luminescent images taken from the experiment. (J.U.)