Design and characterization of the annular cathode high current pulsed electron beam source for circular components

• An annular cathode for HCPEB irradiation of circular components was designed.
• The processing window for the annular cathode is obtained.
• Irradiation thickness uniformity along the circumferential direction exceeds 90%.

In order to irradiate circular components with high current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB), an annular cathode based on carbon fiber bunches was designed and fabricated. Using an acceleration voltage of 25 kV, the maximum pulsed irradiation current and energy of this annular cathode can reach 7.9 kA and 300 J, respectively. The irradiation current density distribution of the annular cathode HCPEB source measured along the circumferential direction shows that the annular cathode has good emission uniformity. In addition, four 9310 steel substrates fixed uniformly along the circumferential direction of a metal ring substrate were irradiated by this annular cathode HCPEB source. The surface and cross-section morphologies of the irradiated samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM images of the surface reveal that crater and surface undulation have been formed, which hints that the irradiation energy of the HCPEB process is large enough for surface modification of 9310 steel. Meanwhile, SEM cross-section images exhibit that remelted layers with a thickness of about 5.4 μm have been obtained in all samples, which proves that a good practical irradiation uniformity can be achieved by this annular cathode HCPEB source.