Production of low-energy high-current electron beams in a reflected-discharge plasma-anode gun

The paper presents the results of investigations on the formation and transportation of high-current electron beams with electron energies of up to 40 keV in the gun with plasma anode. It has been demonstrated that the use of a pulsed reflected (Penning) discharge for the creation of a plasma anode improves substantially the characteristics of the high-current electron beam sources as compared to the use of vacuum arcs. Tentative investigations of the regularities of the operation of a pulsed reflected discharge at currents of up to 300 A are also described.