Generation and characterisation of a pulsed high power electron beam of 2.5 GW

Pulsed High Power Electron Beams with peak power of several gigawatts are useful to generate High Power Microwaves and x-rays. Beams with energy ranging from 100 keV to several MeV, current from few kilo amperes to mega amperes and pulse duration and of a few nanoseconds to a microsecond are used for these applications. In order to generate the beams with current of several kilo amperes with current density ≥ kA/cm2 vacuum field emission method is used. A high voltage pulse ≥100 kV/cm is generated by using a pulse power system and applied between the anode and cathode of a field emission diode. The electric field at the micro tips on the surface of the cathode would be enhanced by several hundred times over the macroscopic field. This field causes electron emission from the micro tips and the tips are evaporated due to heating caused by the current and as a result, plasma of density 1016cm-3 is formed in a few nano seconds on the surface of the cathode. The electrons from the cathode plasma are accelerated towards the anode by the applied electric field and form the beam. In this paper the generation of a pulsed high power electron beam with peak power of 2.5 GW is described