Generation and acceleration of charged particles using compact devices and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10440810-B2
Application number	US-201815865056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 8, 2018
Priority date	Oct 17, 2012
Publication date	Oct 8, 2019
Grant date	Oct 8, 2019

Abstract

A system that generates short charged particle packets or pulses (e.g., electron packets) without requiring a fast-switching-laser source is described. This system may include a charged particle source that produces a stream of continuous charged particles to propagate along a charged particle path. The system also includes a charged particle deflector positioned in the charged particle path to deflect the stream of continuous charged particles to a set of directions different from the charged particle path. The system additionally includes a series of beam blockers located downstream from the charged particle deflector and spaced from one another in a linear configuration as a beam-blocker grating. This beam-blocker grating can interact with the deflected stream of charged particles and divide the stream of the charged particles into a set of short particle packets. In one embodiment, the charged particles are electrons. The beam blockers can be conductors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for generating charged particle packets or pulses, comprising:
a charged particle deflector that receives a stream of continuous charged particles propagating along a first direction and includes deflector elements that deflect the stream of continuous charged particles to a set of directions different from the first direction; and
a series of beam blockers located downstream from the charged particle deflector and spaced from one another in a linear configuration as a beam-blocker grating to interact with the stream of continuous charged particles and divide the stream of continuous charged particles into short particle packets;
wherein the short particle packets emanate from the series of beam blockers, the short particle packets having one or more different non-parallel directions from the first direction of the stream of continuous charged particles.

2. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a charged particle source that produces the stream of continuous charged particles to propagate along the first direction.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the charged particle source produces the stream of continuous charged particles as a long-duration charged particle packet.

4. The device of claim 2 , wherein the charged particle source produces the stream of continuous charged particles as a continuous-wave beam of the continuous charged particles.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the charged particle deflector comprises a pair of parallel plate electrodes.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the charged particle deflector is configured with a ramp voltage applied across the pair of parallel plate electrodes, wherein the ramp voltage causes the stream of continuous charged particles passing through the charged particle deflector to sweep across the beam-blocker grating.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the ramp voltage is repeated at a predetermined repetition rate for generating a periodic source of charged-particle-packets trains.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the series of beam blockers is arranged along a second direction which is substantially parallel to the first direction.

9. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a second series of beam blockers located downstream from the charged particle deflector and directly opposing the series of beam blockers, wherein the series of beam blockers and the second series of beam blockers form a drift region for the stream of continuous charged particles to drift toward the beam-blocker grating.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the beam-blocker grating acts as multiple knife-edges to divide the continuous stream of charged particles into the short particle packets.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the duration of the short particle packets and the duration between two consecutive short particle packets are functions of the ramp rate of the ramp voltage, kinetic energy of the stream of continuous charged particles, and geometries of the beam-blocker grating.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein the duration of the short particle packets is of sub-picosecond.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the charged particles can be either negatively charged particles or positively charged particles.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein the charged particles are electrons.

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the series of beam blockers are arranged in a way that each of the beam blockers has its surface substantially parallel to the first direction.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein the series of beam blockers are arranged in a way that each of the beam blockers has its surface placed at an angle with respect to the first direction.

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein the series of beam blockers are a series of conductors.

18. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a charged particle source that produces the stream of continuous charged particles which propagates along the first direction.

Assignees

• Univ Cornell

Inventors

• Lal Amit
• Shi Yue
• Ardanuc Serhan
• Hwang June-Ho
• Rana Farhan

Classifications

• H01J2237/15

  Means for deflecting or directing discharge · CPC title

• H01J37/1472

  Deflecting along given lines · CPC title

• H05H2007/046

  for beam deflection · CPC title

• H05H9/045 Primary

  Radio frequency quadrupoles · CPC title

• H01J37/06

  Electron sources; Electron guns · CPC title