Apparatus for GHz rate high duty cycle pulsing and manipulation of low and medium energy DC electron beams
An ElectroMagnetic-Mechanical Pulser can generate electron pulses at rates up to 50 GHz, energies up to 1 MeV, duty cycles up to 10%, and pulse widths between 100 fs and 10 ps. A modulating Transverse Deflecting Cavity (“TDC”) imposes a transverse modulation on a continuous electron beam, which is then chopped into pulses by an adjustable Chopping Collimating Aperture. Pulse dispersion due to the modulating TDC is minimized by a suppressing section comprising a plurality of additional TDC's and/or magnetic quadrupoles. In embodiments the suppression section includes a magnetic quadrupole and a TDC followed by four additional magnetic quadrupoles. The TDC's can be single-cell or triple-cell. A fundamental frequency of at least one TDC can be tuned by literally or virtually adjusting its volume. TDC's can be filled with vacuum, air, or a dielectric or ferroelectric material. Embodiments are easily switchable between passive, continuous mode and active pulsed mode.