Pseudospark-Driven High-Current Miniaturized Voltage-Tunable Sheet-Electron-Beam Source

For high-power and compact sub-terahertz (THz) sources, a high-current electron beam is a crucial component. In this article, a miniaturized sheet-electron-beam source has been developed for generation of the high-current-density electron beam. It consists of a hollow cathode with a 3-mm diameter circular aperture, an anode with a 1.25 mm
$\times0.25$
mm rectangular aperture, and an interelectrode three-gap region with optimized dimension. The developed electron beam source has been operated in self-breakdown conditions for applied gap voltage ranging between 10 and 30 kV. The sheet electron beam has been successfully propagated for nearly 45 mm inside the drift space without the assistance of an external magnetic field due to the space charge neutralization effect. It has demonstrated good transmission characteristics with more than 50-A beam current and beam current loss of around 25%.