Current nanopulse generation in RF electron gun with metal-dielectric cathode

The RF gun operation with metal-dielectric cathode is reviewed in the paper. The beam is extracted from the plasma developed during the microwave flashover dielectric in vacuum. The cathode was designed and electron beam dynamics was computer simulated. Modes of the gun operation were researched experimentally on the linear resonance electron accelerator. The beam at the gun output has the pulse current of 3.5-4.5 A with the current pulse duration of 40-50 ns and with particle energy of 300 keV. Some treatments of the beam development and the gun cavity response to the flashover in high intensity RF fields are given.