Diagnostics of Pulsed Beams of Electrons, Ions, and Atoms (Review)

Abstract

Abstract A review of methods for diagnosing the most important parameters of pulsed beams of electrons, ions, and accelerated atoms, such as the current density, fluence, total energy per pulse, the energy density distribution over the cross section, the composition of the beam, and its energy spectrum, is presented. The main attention is paid to the methods of diagnostics of beams intended for technological applications with a particle energy of 0.01–1 MeV and an energy density of 0.1–10 J/cm2. This paper contains a description of each diagnostic method, its scope of application, and systematic errors. The thermal imaging diagnostics of the total energy of a particle beam, the energy-density distribution over the cross section, the beam movement in the focal plane in a series of pulses, and the beam divergence during its transport to the target are considered. The time-of-flight diagnostics of ion beams is presented, which allows determining the beam composition, the fluence, and the energy spectrum of each type of ion in a beam of a complex composition (ions with different masses and degrees of ionization). The acoustic (thermoradiation) diagnostics based on the detection of acoustic waves, which are generated by a particle beam in a metal target by a piezoelectric transducer, is described.