Abstract
Results are presented from experiments on the generation of runaway electron beams and X-ray emission in atmospheric-pressure air by using voltage pulses with an ∼0.5-μs front duration. It is shown that the use of small-curvature-radius spherical cathodes (or other cathodes with small curvature radii) decreases the intensity of the runaway electron beam and X-ray emission. It is found that, at sufficiently high voltages at the electrode gap (U m ∼ 100 kV), the gap breakdown, the formation of a spark channel, and the generation of a runaway electron beam occur over less than 10 ns. At high values of U m behind the anode that were reached by increasing the cathode size and the electrode gap length, a supershort avalanche electron beam with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of up to ∼100 ps was detected. At voltages of ∼50 kV, the second breakdown regime was revealed in which a runaway electron beam with an FWHM of ∼2 ns was generated, whereas the FWHM of the X-ray pulse increased to ∼100 ns. It is established that the energy of the bulk of runaway electrons decreases with increasing voltage front duration and is ⩽30 keV in the first regime and ⩽10 keV in the second regime.
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Original Russian Text © I.D. Kostyrya, V.F. Tarasenko, 2015, published in Fizika Plazmy, 2015, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 294–299.
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Kostyrya, I.D., Tarasenko, V.F. Generation of runaway electrons and X-ray emission during breakdown of atmospheric-pressure air by voltage pulses with an ∼0.5-μs front duration. Plasma Phys. Rep. 41, 269–273 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X15030058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X15030058