Abstract and subjects
We present the design of a field-emission X-band gun designed to be powered using a solid-state RF source. The source of the electron beam is a field emission nano-tip array. The RF gun is intended to be a beam source for 1 MeV solid-state driven linac for deployment on a satellite to map magnetic fields in the magnetosphere. The gun has to satisfy strict requirements on both average and peak power consumption, as well as rapid turn on time. In order to achieve low power consumption, the RF gun operates at relatively low accelerating gradient of 2 MeV/m. The beam exit energy is ~20 keV for an RF power 1.5 kW. Each cell of the RF gun is separately powered by commercially available, GaN high electron mobility transistors. In proof of principle experiments we successfully powered a 9.3 GHz accelerating cavity with a 100 W transistor and a 1% duty cycle.