Simple, pulsed, electron beam gun

Abstract

The construction of a simple, inexpensive electron beam gun is described. The pulsed power supply consists of a homemade spiral generator, constructed with aluminum and vinyl pressure‐sensitive tapes, which is switched into the electron beam gun with a spark gap. The electron beam gun itself consists of a vacuum diode with a cold carbon cathode. From an inital charge voltage of 12 kV, the apparatus produces a 10‐A beam of 100‐keV electrons having a pulse duration of about 7 nsec and diameter of 6 mm.