10 A beam current electron gun design for a high-power electron linac

The development of electron beam applications motivates electron gun research. In addition to the beam energy and current, its quality also plays a significant role in the spread of electron guns. Herein, we present the design of an electron gun for use as an electron source in a linear accelerator with high beam current and quality. In this design, starting with the Pierce geometry, a stay-by-stay optimization based on the physics governed by the beam behavior has been carried out to control the emittance growth and get a beam of outstanding quality. In particular, non-linear transverse force, space charge effect, and spherical aberration are considered. This resulted in a threefold improvement in the beam quality as measured by the beam emittance.