Development of a high vacuum 50 keV 1 Amp pulsed electron gun

A vacuum electron gun to produce a 50 keV, 1 Amp (peak) pulsed electron beam has been designed and developed at BARC. The pulse width is 10 /spl mu/sec, at a pulse repetition rate of 400 Hz. This gun is to be used for the 10 MeV, 10 kW RF electron linac for industrial applications. Normalized emittance of <50mm.mrad.MeV/c is the requirement from the linac side. A thermionic emission based electron gun has been developed, with LaB/sub 6/ cathode, at a vacuum /spl les/10/sup -6/ torr. This paper presents the details of the electron gun and associated power supplies. Some of the operating characteristics have been discussed.