Energy efficiency of the high-current diode under the blow-up mode evolution in the anode

•Applying high-current electron beam to target with density greater than critical value excites virtual electrodes in target.•Explosive growth of electron beam power density absorbed in anode virtual electrodes excites nonlinear wave in blow-up mode.•Front of nonlinear wave transitions to coherently correlated state with suppressed Coulomb barriers and synthesis reactions.•Unstable front leads to explosion and stable element synthesis with >10x energy of primary accumulator.•Conclusions on energy release supported by current parameters, structural element deformations, and optical measurements. The results of experimental studies of energy fluxes released during the diode target blow-up initiated by a high-current relativistic electron beam are presented in the paper. The energy of target explosion products required for realization of the observed diode structural elements deformation is being estimated. Measurements of the target explosion products parameters and finite-element modeling of the mechanical deformation of the cathode system elements show an energy release during the target explosion that far exceeds the energy input.