Comparison of diode voltage and ion energy for an intense pulsed ion-beam diode

A comparison is made of the voltage applied to an intense pulsed ion-beam diode and the energy of deuterons emitted from the diode. The authors measured the energy of deuterons from diodes operating at peak voltages ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 MV. The deuteron energy is determined by neutron time-of-flight (TOF) using d-d neutrons. Deuterons from a CD2-coated anode bombard a thin CD2 target located at the cathode to produce neutrons which are detected at 00. Measured voltage and ion current traces are used to calculate the neutron TOF trace. The deuteron energy is determined by adjusting the magnitude of the voltage so that the calculated TOF trace agrees temporarily with the measured trace. Peak deuteron energy is determined to a precision of 5 to 10% for a flight path of 7.7m. The diode voltage is deduced from a capacitive voltmeter with an inductive correction for the difference between the voltmeter and diode locations