Control of gigawatt REB pulse duration using gas injection

Author

Mittal, K.C. ; Rohatgi, V.K.

Author_Institution

Div. of Plasma Phys., Bhabha Atomic Res. Center, Bombay, India

Volume

16

Issue

6

fYear

1988

Firstpage

601

Lastpage

605

Abstract

A technique for controlling the voltage and current pulse duration of a gigawatt relativistic electron beam (REB) was investigated. The pulse duration of a beam of 250 keV and 10 kA was controlled from 60 ns to 10 ns by injecting gases (air,, argon, and hydrogen) into the diode gap at a pressure ranging from 10/sup -5/ torr to 10/sup -1/. The observed dependence of the pulse duration on the nature and pressure of the gas is explained in terms of volume ionization of the gas by beam electrons. It is concluded that the pulse duration is governed by the time at which the plasma density created by the beam reaches a critical value of the order of beam electron number density.<>

Keywords

beam handling techniques; electron beams; 10 kA; 10 to 60 ns; 10/sup -5/ to 10/sup -1/ torr; 250 keV; Ar; H/sub 2/; air,; beam electron number density; critical value; current pulse; diode gap; gas injection; gigawatt REB pulse duration; plasma density; relativistic electron beam; voltage; volume ionization; Argon; Diodes; Electron beams; Gases; Hydrogen; Ionization; Particle beams; Plasma density; Pressure control; Voltage control;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.16547

Filename

16547