Investigations of the radial-electron-beam diode for gas-laser excitation

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Abstract
A study has been made of high‐power radially converging electron‐beam diodes and their application to gas‐laser excitation. The REBLE accelerator, built for this study, provided reliable single‐shot operation at the 1‐MV 180‐kA 20‐ns level. It is shown that annular‐blade cathodes can produce uniform anode current densities at 100–200 A/cm2. Apertured‐Faraday‐cup measurements indicate that the beam is transported readily through the gas. No evidence of microinstabilities in the anode current density were observed. Comparisons of energy‐deposition measurements and calculations demonstrate that existing Monte Carlo electron/photon transport codes give an accurate description of the energy deposition when collective effects are not important. Measurements of zenon‐excimer radiation excited by the radial electron beam show that 20% of the electron‐beam energy deposited in the gas appeared as excimer light. At ∼1600 Torr the radial profile of the emitted radiation was uniform within the ±10% uncertainty in the measurement.

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