The electron beam and pinch effect characteristics of double discharge pulsed electron beam generator

The double discharge pulsed electron beam generator (DDPEBG) is a device that generates an intense filamentary electron beam by superposing two discharges namely a low pressure DC glow discharge and a high current pulsed discharge. The characteristics of this electron beam are: small beam diameter (8 /spl mu/m), high peak current (20 A), and short pulse length (30 ns). The filling gas is helium, argon or nitrogen at approximately 0.1 Torr pressure, and the discharge chamber does not require a high vacuum system. The absence of a high vacuum system and the capability to generate ultra short, intense electron beams are the major advantages of this device and, might be useful in many applications. In this work, further results on operating characteristics of the DDPEBG, such as pinch effects and electron density measurements are given. The beam diameter is measured experimentally by utilizing the interaction of a single pulse with different metal foils targets. These foils are then examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the measured diameters are compared with the beam diameter values resulted from the pinch effect calculations of the filamentary discharge. The electron density is determined from the beam diameter and current intensity.