Design and Properties of Cu-Based LaB₆ Photocathode for Pseudospark Discharge in Electron Beam Source: An Experimental Study

A novel pseudo-spark discharge device was designed to optically trigger the multi-gap pseudo-spark and generate electron beam.The original work was the Cu-based LaB₆ photocathode.The influence of the Cu-based LaB ₍6) photocathode on the e-beam behavior was investigated.The results show that the Cu-based LaB ₍6) photocathode significantly improves the controllability and stability of the optical trigger discharge.When it comes to properties of e-beam induced by pseudo-spark discharge, the Cu-based LaB ₍6) photocathode outperforms conventional Cu-cathode.For example, the peak e-beam current for Cu-based LaB₆ photocathode was 0.7 A, 0.3 A higher than that for Cu-cathode (0.4 A), increasing by 76.2%.The increase of e-beam pulse duration was roughly 10.7%~18.2%.We suggest that LaB₆ be a good photoelectric material for optical triggering pseudo-spark discharge because it considerably increases e-beam current density, promotes formation and growth of plasma, produces little low energy electrons and does not generate much energy loss.