基于空心阴极效应和低压辉光放电原理,设计了一种小型空心阴极等离子体电子枪并进行了实验研究,在低气压下获得了稳定的空心阴极辉光放电,测量电子枪放电结果表明:在空心阴极中加入灯丝热子可明显降低放电气压;电子束电流的大小随放电电压增大而增大,受气体气压影响较小;在气压2 Pa,放电电压10 kV,脉宽4 μs脉冲下放电,可得到脉宽为2 μs,电流为600 mA的电子束。

Based on the hollow cathode effect and low-pressure glow discharge empirical formulas,the preliminary design of a miniature hollow cathode plasma electron gun is presented. This kind of gun has a major advantage in that it has no material cathode,can drive current densities larger than thermionic counterparts,can have long lifetime and can operate reliable at fore vacuum gas pressure ranges such as achieved by mechanical pumps. The relationships of beam current,discharge voltage and gas pressure have been experimentally investigated. A electron beam of current 600 mA,pulse width 2 μs is obtained under pressure 2 Pa,discharge voltage 10 kV.