Electrical Characterization of Plasma-Assisted Electron Beam Source With Sub-mm Sheet Aperture

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 70; no. 2; pp. 771 - 775
• Main Authors: Abhishek, Anand, Kumar, Niraj, Vishant, Meena, Bharat Lal, Jain, Sahil, Prabhu, Shriganesh, Mishra, Ajay, Dixit, Nimish, Khare, Sudhir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-02-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Anodes; Apertures; Breakdown; Cathodes; Current density; Electric breakdown; Electric potential; Electrical properties; Electron beam source; Electron beams; Energy conversion; Hollow cathodes; Parameters; plasma; pseudospark (PS)
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2022.3231574

In this article, the electrical characterization of a plasma-assisted electron beam source with a sub-mm sheet aperture has been performed. The developed sheet electron beam source comprises a hollow cathode cavity, two floating anodes, and one ground potential anode with a sheet aperture of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1.5\times0.3 </tex-math></inline-formula> mm. The source has been characterized under varying applied gap potential range, i.e., 10-30 kV in self-breakdown operating mode. The breakdown parameters and resultant beam parameters, such as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{V} - {I} </tex-math></inline-formula> characteristics, electron beam current density, duration to reach the conductive phase, and the energy transformation efficiency of the developed source, have been analyzed. The successive breakdown phenomenon has also been presented in the profile of the developed electron beam source.