Considerations for high-brightness electron sources

Particle accelerators are now used in many areas of physics research and in industrial and medical applications. New uses are being studied to address major societal needs in energy production, materials research, generation of intense beams of radiation at optical and suboptical wavelengths, treatment of various kinds of waste, and so on. Many of these modern applications require a high intensity beam at the desired energy, along with a very good beam quality in terms of the beam confinement, aiming, or focusing. Considerations for ion and electron accelerators are often different, but there are also many commonalties, and in fact, techniques derived for one should perhaps more often be considered for the other as well. We discuss some aspects of high-brightness electron sources here from that point of view. 6 refs