Title :
Lowered plasma velocity with cesium iodide/carbon fiber cathodes at high electric fields
Author :
Benford, J. ; Price, D. ; DeHope, W.
Author_Institution :
Microwave Sci. Inc., Lafayette, CA, USA
Abstract :
Summary form only given. When explosive emission cathodes are used in higher power (>100 MW) devices, microwave pulse shortening occurs because of motion of the cathode plasma at speeds 1 to 5/spl times/10/sup 6/ cm/sec. This limited duration in turn can limit present-day high power microwave (HPM) sources to a few hundred joules. The introduction of cathodes made from cesium lodide-coated (Csl) carbon fiber has shown reduced plasma velocity reduced by factors of a few from uncoated carbon fiber, but previous work was at low diode fields of a few 10´s of kV/cm. We have demonstrated reduced Csl plasma velocity for macroscopic electric fields of 265 kV/cm, sufficient for the diodes of GW microwave sources.
Keywords :
caesium compounds; carbon; carbon fibres; cathodes; electric field effects; microwave generation; plasma transport processes; 100 MW; CsI-C; CsI/C fiber cathodes; GW microwave sources; explosive emission cathodes; high electric fields; lowered plasma velocity; macroscopic electric fields; microwave pulse shortening; plasma velocity; present-day high power microwave sources; Assembly; Atmospheric-pressure plasmas; Carbon dioxide; Cathodes; Diodes; Microwave devices; Optical fiber devices; Physics; Plasma sources; Plasma temperature;
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Science, 1998. 25th Anniversary. IEEE Conference Record - Abstracts. 1998 IEEE International on
Conference_Location :
Raleigh, NC, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-4792-7
DOI :
10.1109/PLASMA.1998.677664
