The experimental study of a tapered, multi-gap, multi-aperture pseudospark-sourced electron gun based X-band plasma assisted slow wave oscillator is presented. The designed electron gun is based on the pseudospark discharge concept and has been used to generate a high current density and high energy electron beam simultaneously. The distribution of apertures has been arranged such that the field penetration potency inside the backspace of the hollow-cathode is different while passing through the tapered gap region. This leads to non-concurrent ignition of the discharge through all the channels which is, in general, quite challenging in the case of multi-aperture plasma cathode electron gun geometries. Multiple and successive hollow cathode phases are reported from this electron gun geometry, which have been confirmed using simulations. This geometry also has led to the achievement of ∼71% fill factor inside the slow wave oscillator for an electron beam of energy of 20 keV and a beam current density in the range of 115-190 A/cm2 at a working argon gas pressure of 18 Pa. The oscillator has generated broadband microwave output in the frequency range of 10-11.7 GHz with a peak power of ∼10 kW for ∼50 ns.
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机译：提出了一种基于锥形，多间隙，多孔径伪火花源电子枪的X波段等离子体辅助慢波振荡器的实验研究。设计的电子枪基于伪火花放电概念，已被用于同时产生高电流密度和高能量电子束。孔的分布被布置成使得中空阴极的后空间内部的场穿透能力在穿过锥形间隙区域时是不同的。这导致通过所有通道的放电的非并发点火，这通常在多孔径等离子体阴极电子枪几何结构的情况下是非常具有挑战性的。从这种电子枪的几何形状报告了多个和连续的空心阴极相，这些相已通过仿真得到了证实。这种几何形状还导致在慢波振荡器中，对于20 keV的能量的电子束，在工作氩气压力为15-190 A / cm2的情况下，电子束电流密度在115-190 A / cm2的范围内，填充系数达到约71％。 18 Pa。该振荡器在10-11.7 GHz的频率范围内产生了宽带微波输出，峰值功率约10 kW，持续约50 ns。
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