Microwave Emission From Relativistic Electron Beams

This is a continuation proposal on Microwave Emission from Relativistic electron Beams. Below we summarize the various research activities. All of the experimental studies described below will be performed using our Physics International 615MR Pulserad Accelerator with a maximum voltage of 500 kV and peak currents of 4 kA and the 1.5MV, 30kA Pulserad 110A. The electron beam is presently generated by a thermionically emitting, electrostatically focused, Pierce-type electron gun (250 kV, 250 A) removed from a SLAC klystron. An assembly of six focusing coils is designed so that their magnetic field lines lie along the zero-magnetic field electron trajectories. This field configuration gives the least scalloping of the electron beam (low transverse temperature) and allows the magnetic field amplitude to be varied over a wide range without greatly affecting the electron beam temperature. Only the inner portion of the beam is used; an aperture limits the beam radius to r sub b = 0. 254 cm. Consequently, the net current available for the different experiments is in the range of 1-8 A. In addition to the above gun, we have recently procured from SLAC a brand-new, state of the art, electron gun that can operate at 450 kV and a peak current of approximately 500 A. The advantage of this system over the previous one is our ability to operate at higher voltages and thus study the various coherent radiation mechanisms at considerably shorter wavelengths.