The Unique Possibilities of Electron Sources with a Grid Plasma Cathodes for Modification of the Surface of Materials and Products

The paper presents the features of the «SOLO» electron source operation with a grid plasma cathode, the operation principle of which is based on the use of a fine-mesh grid that stabilizes the boundary of the emission plasma. The grid (layer) stabilization of the emission plasma boundary allows the generation of electron beams with a wide range of parameters, which weakly depend on each other, and which makes it possible to control any of the electron beam parameters separately (electron energy, current amplitude discharge, the duration and frequency of the pulse current beam), keeping the other beam parameters unchanged. Thus, the SOLO source allows the generation of wide (up to several cm 2 ) low-energy (up to 25 keV) intense (hundreds of amperes) submillisecond electron beams and use these beams in vacuum to modify the surface of various inorganic materials (an energy density reaches 100 J/cm 2 ). In this work, an important distinctive feature of such an electron source will be demonstrated, namely, the ability to controllably generate an electron beam with variable power during a pulse of submillisecond beam duration by changing its amplitude. In a number of cases, this feature provides conditions for a more stable operation of the electron source, which makes it possible to introduce more energy into the sample surface, as well as to controllably change the surface temperature of the irradiated sample. In particular, it is possible to keeping the surface temperature of the irradiated sample in the millisecond range, which opens up additional possibilities when using such electron sources both for scientific (for example, thermonuclear materials science) and for technological purposes (for example, for increasing the service life of various units and mechanisms).