APPARATUS FOR GENERATING ACCELERATED ELECTRONS

The invention relates to an apparatus for generating accelerated electrons, comprising: a housing (101), which delimits an evacuable space (102a; 102b) and has an electron exit window (104); an inlet for feeding a working gas into the evacuable space (102); at least one first cathode (105a; 105b) and at least one first anode, between which a glow discharge plasma (106) can be generated in the evacuable space (102a) by means of a first applied voltage, wherein ions from the glow discharge plasma (106) can be accelerated onto the surface (110) of a second cathode (107) and electrons emitted by the second cathode (107) can be accelerated toward the electron exit window (104) by means of a second voltage applied between the second cathode (107) and a second anode (108), wherein the housing (101), the second cathode (107), and the electron exit window (104) are designed as a ring segment, and wherein the surface perpendiculars of the electron exit window (104) and of the surface region (110) of the second cathode (107) from which the electrons are emitted are oriented towards the ring interior of the ring-segment-shaped housing (101). Furthermore, the space (102a) is divided into partial segments (113) by means of walls (112), wherein each partial segment (113) has at least one wire-shaped electrode (111), which extends through the partial segment (113), and at least one separate power supply device is associated with each partial segment (113), by means of which power supply device the strength of the electric current that flows through the at least one electrode (213) of the partial segment in question can be set.