ELEKTRONENBUENDEL SOWIE ANORDNUNG ZUM ERZEUGEN DERSELBEN

摘要

Disclosed are many different arrangements in which, in a vacuum or gas-filled enclosure, a cathode 12, Figs 1 and 2, is pulsed with respect to an anode 14 in order to generate from the discharge therebetween high electrical charge density entities, called EV's in the specification, which comprise discrete, self-contained, negatively charged bundles of electrons. Preferably a dielectric surface 10 is provided between the anode and cathode to provide a surface along which the discharge entity propagates. Further electrodes may be provided to control the EV. The cathode may be pointed, as shown, to operate by field emission and may be formed of Cu or Ag wetted with Hg, with a small Hg resevoir incorporated in the electrode, Figs. 5 and 6 (not shown). Instead of planer geometry the device may be cylindrically symmetric, Fig. 3, with anode 24 spaced 1 mm from cathode 22 at opposite ends of glass tube 34. With a gas pressure of a few bar or a vacuum of 10<-3> bar, EV's may be produced by applying 2KV pulses of 0.1 mu sec divation to the cathode. Other cathode materials and constructions are disclosed and arrangements for separating, guiding (eg. capacitance, inductance, gaseous or optical guides), launching, selecting, splitting and deflecting EV's are detailed. Embodiments utilising EV's in devices such as oscilloscopes, display tubes, electrodeless tubes, travelling wave tubes, pulse generators, X-ray sources, electron sources and RF sources are also disclosed. <IMAGE>