Starting in the cold cathode distributed emission crossed field amplifier

The role of back bombarding electrons in the "starting" process of distributed emission crossed-field amplifiers is examined in this paper. Simple closed-form expressions are derived which show how the various parameters of the crossed-field amplifier affect the back bombardment potential and phase shift of the electrons in the initial (space-charge-free) current build-up region. A comparison of the results of this paper with a more accurate computer analysis is made for a specific case. The agreement between the two methods is shown to be excellent. Several curves are plotted which make it possible to easily find the back bombardment potentials and phase shifts for a wide range of tube parameters.