An analysis of electron guns for welding

Results from numerical experiments and direct measurements for the analysis of an axially symmetric triode electron gun with thermionic cathode for electron beam welding are presented and discussed. Computer simulation is carried out using the new version of the GUN-EBT software package. The self-consistent model takes into account the energy spectrum of emitted electrons and formation of a potential minimum in front of the cathode. The method underlying the investigation incorporates not only the commonly used trajectory analysis (ray tracing) but also an analysis in the phase space (phase analysis) which allows the emittance of the beams to be evaluated. it is demonstrated that computer simulation of beam formation provides ample information for the assessment both of the quality of generated beams and operational performance of the guns.