Generation of a submillisecond electron beam with a high-density current in a plasma-emitter diode under the conditions of open plasma boundary emission

The generation of a 250-μs-wide electron beam in a plasma-emitter diode is studied experimentally. A plasma was produced by a pulsed arc discharge in hydrogen. The electron beam is extracted from a circular emission hole 3.8 mm in diameter under open plasma boundary conditions. The beam accelerated in the diode gap enters into a drift space in the absence of an external magnetic field through a hole 4.1 mm in diameter made in the anode. The influence of electron current deposition at the edge of the anode hole on the beam’s maximum attainable current, above which the diode gap breaks down, is studied for different accelerating voltages and diode gaps. The role of processes occurring on the surface of the electrodes is shown. For an accelerating voltage of 32 kV, a mean emission current density of 130 A/cm² is achieved. The respective mean strength of the electric field in the acceleration gap is 140 kV/cm. Using the POISSON-2 software package, the numerical simulation of the diode performance is carried out and the shape of steady plasma emission boundaries in the cathode and anode holes is calculated. The influence of the density of the ion current from the anode plasma surface on the maximum attainable current of the electron beam is demonstrated.