Nanosecond pulse-width electron diode based on dielectric wall accelerator technology

An electron diode using a short section of dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) has been under development at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tests have been carried out with spark gap switches triggered by lasers. The stack voltage efficiency of a four-layer of Blumleins reached about 60-70% with gas filled spark gap switching. The generated pulse voltage of peak amplitude of 23 kV and pulse width of 5 ns is used to extract and accelerate an electron beam of 320 mA, measured by a fast current transformer. A nanosecond pulse width electron diode was achieved successfully. Furthermore, the principle of a DWA is well proven and the development details and discussions are presented in this article.