Theoretical and Experimental Investigation on Intense Sheet Electron Beam Transport With Its Diocotron Instability in a Uniform Magnetic Field

In this paper, the cold-fluid model theory of an intense sheet electron beam is developed to investigate the diocotron instability during its transport in a uniform magnetic field. The model shows that if the magnetic field strength and the beam filling factor are increased separately, the diocotron instability will be suppressed, which extends the sheet-beam transport distance effectively. To verify the above conclusion, a set of complicated instruments, the electron beam measuring and analyzing system (EBMAS), was developed to measure the beam cross section, beam current density, and the 3-D trajectory. The sheet electron beam transport process in a uniform magnetic field with its diocotron instability is investigated on the basis of EBMAS measurements. The measured results agree very well with theoretical calculation and numerical simulation. A sheet-electron-beam tube based on a uniform magnetic field was then manufactured to drive a future W-band sheet-beam klystron (WSBK). Tuning the sheet-beam parameters over a broad range, including a cathode voltage range of 20-82 kV, current range of 0.5-4.27 A, and with a beam cross section of about 10 mm $\times\,$ 0.5 mm, the experimental beam transmission rate is above 98% through a beam tunnel of 100 mm in length.