Publications

Transport of a relativistic electron beam in gas and plasma-filled focusing cells for x-ray radiography

Welch, Dale R.; Rose, D.V.; Oliver, Bryan V.; Schamiloglu, E.; Hahn, K.; Maenchen, John E.

The propagation of a 30 kA, 3.5 Mev electron beam which was focused into gas and plasma-filled cells was discussed. Gas cells which were used for X-ray radiography were produced using pulsed-power accelerators, onto a high atomic number target to generate bremsstrahlung radiation. The effectiveness of beam focusing using neutral gas, partially ionized gas, and fully ionized (plasma-filled) cells was investigated using numerical simulation. It was observed in an optimized gas cell that an initial plasma density approaching 1016 cm-3 was sufficient to prevent significant net currents and the subsequent beam sweep.