Variation of the beam parameters of runaway electrons in a gas discharge under the conditions of nonuniform preliminary ionization

Abstract

Within the theoretical model of a high-pressure hybrid nanosecond discharge with runaway electrons, a strong dependence of the electron beam amplitude, duration, and energy spectrum on the conditions of the preliminary ionization of a gas in the discharge gap is demonstrated. The conditions with uniform and nonuniform distributions of initial electrons in a coaxial diode filled with sulfur hexafluoride at atmospheric pressure are simulated. It is shown that the amplitude and current pulse profile of the electron beam substantially change upon the variation of the initial distribution of the electrons in the discharge gap.