Measurement of beam energy spread in a space-charge dominated electron beam

Characterization of beam energy spread in a space-charge dominated beam is very important to understanding the physics of intense beams. It is believed that coupling between the transverse and longitudinal directions via Coulomb collisions will cause an increase of the beam longitudinal energy spread. At the University of Maryland, experiments have been carried out to study the energy evolution in such intense beams with a high-resolution retarding field energy analyzer. The temporal beam energy profile along the beam pulse has been characterized at the distance of 25 cm from the anode of a gridded thermionic electron gun. The mean energy of the pulsed beams including the head and tail is reported here. The measured rms energy spread is in good agreement with the predictions of the intrabeam scattering theory. As an application of the beam energy measurement, the input impedance between the cathode and the grid due to beam loading can be calculated and the impedance number is found to be a constant in the operation region of the gun.