Performance Evaluation of Three-Gap Pseudospark-Driven Miniaturized Electron Beam Source

In this article, the performance evaluation of an electron beam produced by a multigap pseudospark (PS)-driven miniaturized electron beam source (EBS) for different applied gap potentials has been analyzed. The EBS is a flange-based device and comprises a stainless-steel hollow cathode, two floating anodes sandwiched between three insulator disks forming a three-gap structure, and one ground anode disk. The developed EBS was characterized by a voltage span of 10–30 kV in the self-breakdown mode under identical conditions. The generated electron beam was evaluated and analyzed for its voltage-pressure relationship, V–I characteristics, voltage collapse at discharge initiation, time for discharge initiation, power during the hollow cathode phase (
${P} _{\text {HCP}}$
), and power during the conductive phase (
${P} _{\text {CP}}$
). The contribution of power of different phases in total beam power was also analyzed. It was found that the power during the hollow cathode phase (HCP) had contributed more than three times more than the power contributed during the conductive phase (CP).