High-Current Relativistic Electron Beam Transport in a Drift Tube in the Absence of an External Magnetic Field

摘要

The current of an intense relativistic electron beam emitted from a metal–dielectric multiedge cathode that passes through an anode grid and is transported in a smooth-wall drift tube in the absence of an external magnetic field has been measured at the collector. In these experiments, the electron flux was transported over a distance twice as large as the drift tube diameter. An optimum cathode and storage electrode configurations have been found that allowed the efficiency of the relativistic Cherenkov microwave oscillator without a guiding magnetic field to be increased up to 10% at a maximum output pulse radiation power of 1.3 GW and a working frequency of 4.03 GHz.