First experimental observation of an electron beam with a plasma parameter greater than one

An electron beam generated by a GaAs photocathode, activated in negative electron affinity conditions, was studied under two different accelerating regimes. The energy spread of the beam, after an adiabatic acceleration is lower than after a fast acceleration. For the first time a longitudinal plasma parameter greater than one has been obtained for an electron beam

The GaAs electron source: simulations and experiments

In this paper we calculate electron emission from GaAs photocathodes using the Monte Carlo technique. Typical data of energy spread of the electron beam are presented. For photoenergy ranging from 1.6 to 2.1 eV, the calculated longitudinal and transverse energy spreads are 14.4–78 and 4–14.7 meV respectively. Temporal response measurement of GaAsphotocathodes has been performed. The preliminary results show that the temporal response is faster than 200 ps

Relaxations in electron beams and adiabatic acceleration

In order to produce electron beams with the minimum possible energy spread we have investigated the possibility of replacing the usual thermocathodes with a photoemissive source such as GaAs. A comparison carried out between these two sources indicated the latter as the best device to obtain a very-low-energy spread. Beam relaxation after emission also leads to an increase in the energy spread. Therefore an experimental study on the nature of relaxations occurring in electron beams, yielded both by a thermocathode and by a photocathode, has been performed. More specifically, we investigated the possibility of reducing the transverse-longitudinal and the longitudinal-longitudinal relaxations. With this aim, the features of adiabatic acceleration, which damp the pure longitudinal relaxation, have been examined. The experience gained during the measurement cycle demonstrated that an adiabatic structure, accelerating electrons emitted by a GaAs photocathode, leads to the best performances