Flash vacuum-ultraviolet generator having a mercury-anode tube

The fundamental studies on a flash vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) generator for producing water-window x-rays are described. This generator consisted of the following essential components: a high-voltage power supply, a polarity-inversion-type high-voltage pulser having a 15 nF condenser, a thyristor pulser as a trigger device, a turbomolecular pump, and a VUV tube. The VUV tube employed a mercury anode, and the ferrite cathode was embedded in the anode. The pressure in the tube was primarily determined by the steam pressure of mercury as a function of temperature. The condenser in the pulser was charged from -10 to -30 kV by the power supply, and the electric charges in the condenser were discharged to the radiation tube after closing a gap switch by the thyristor pulser. As the high electron flows from the cathode electrode evaporated the anode electrode, VUV rays were then produced. The maximum output voltage from the pulser was approximately -1 times the charging voltage, and both the tube voltage and current displayed damped oscillations. The maximum values of the tube voltage and current were 14 kV and 2.0 kA, respectively. Since the effective accelerating voltage was substantially decreased by the ferrite cathode, soft x-rays were easily generated. The pulse durations of the VUV rays including water-window x-rays were nearly equivalent to those of the damped oscillations of the voltage and current, and their values were less than 15 micros