A Portable Electron Beam Generator for Relativistic Electron Beam Characterization Experiments

A compact Pulsed Power system, which is reported in this paper, is designed for conducting Relativistic-Electron-Beam characterization experiments in the space-charge limited flow. The experiments are conducted for various cathode materials like graphite and velvet and also for various anode transparencies and geometries by making them of thin foil as well as of mesh. The reported Pulsed power system is made very compact as well as portable by using solid dielectric pulsed forming line. The system consists of a tesla transformer, which is of helical secondary and cylindrical-sheet single-turn primary. Tesla charges a pulse forming line made of cascade of 50ohm transmission lines, which are of high wattage as well as high voltage ratings under pulsed operation. The net impedance of this cable cascade is such that it is matched for a designed diode as load. The impedance of designed diode is 13.5 ohm and is designed to operate at 250kV and hence almost 18.5kA current levels for 100ns pulse duration. Related design details as well as all the diagnostics, used for measurement of current, voltage and other parameters of interest, are reported and finally the results are compiled in this paper.