Plasma Cathode for a Short-Pulse Dielectric Wall Accelerator

The Beam Research Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is continuing development of the dielectric wall accelerator (DWA), a type of accelerator which uses stacked pulse-forming lines (PFLs) to apply an accelerating field directly to the beam through a nonconducting vacuum boundary. Here, we report operation of a DWA as an electron diode using a surface flashover plasma cathode. Peak perveances in excess of 6 times 10 -6 A/V 3/2 were measured, with current extraction and pulse train format depending on flashover source timing and PFL switching speed.