THE PROCESS OF SPACE CURRENT NEUTRALIZATION OF INTENSE RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON BEAM UNDER AN EXTERNALLY APPLIED MAGNETIC GUIDE FIELD

The process of space current neutralization of intense relativistic electron beam under an externally applied magnetic guide field is discussed in this paper. Ionization by electron avalanching and by beam electrons impact and recombination is included in the calculation of plasma density buildup, with plasma heating by return current and two- stream instability taken into account. A code to evaluate the process of space current neutralization was set up. The calculations demonstrate that the optimum gas pressure increases as peak beam current increases and it decreases as the risetime of beam pulse increases.