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Evaluation of Explosive Emission Carbon Fiber

Cathodes for High-Power Microwave Devices
Tyler Buntin , Member, IEEE, Matthew Abide, Member, IEEE, Andreas Neuber , Fellow, IEEE,
James Dickens , Senior Member, IEEE, Ravindra Joshi , Fellow, IEEE,
and John Mankowski , Senior Member, IEEE

1 Abstract— Most high-power microwave (HPM) sources, such tested for their effectiveness in HPM systems, such as cloth 40
2 as the magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator (MILO) velvet [2], [3] and etched metals and arrays of metal pins 41
3 being developed at Texas Tech, utilize cold cathodes that generate [4], [5]. The most promising cathodes seen so far have been 42
4 electrons via explosive emission. Highly emissive cathodes such
5 as the presented can generate current densities and currents variations of carbon, such as carbon-epoxy capillaries [6], [7] 43

6 greater than 1 kA/cm2 and 10 kA, respectively, which are and carbon fiber [4], [5], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]. The 44

7 required for devices that can output radio frequency (RF) electron emission properties of these cathodes are not always 45
8 power greater than 100 MW. Typically, these cathodes are made well-defined, and vary by cathode. Metal cathodes have the 46
9 of materials such as metal, silk or synthetic velvet, carbon most widely documented emission characteristics, and operate 47
10 fiber, and cesium iodine (CsI)-coated carbon fiber. In order to
11 optimize the MILO performance, we fabricated carbon fiber via explosive electron emission (EEE) [14]. The two widely 48

12 velvet cathodes and compare their performance with other accepted mechanisms for electron emission for carbon fiber 49

13 commercially available carbon fiber cathodes. Fabrication was cathodes are surface flashover, as described in [15], and field 50
14 done on a manual, mechanical loom using commercially available emission [9]. Parson et al. [16] showed that, under the proper 51
15 carbon fiber thread. Four carbon fiber cathodes were tested: conditions of ultrahigh vacuum (UHV, 10−9 torr) and baked 52
16 in-house fabricated monomodal carbon fiber velvet, in-house
17 fabricated bimodal carbon fiber velvet, in-house fabricated car- clean surfaces, that EEE occurs with carbon fiber after an 53

18 bon fiber plain weave cloth, and bimodal carbon fiber velvet initial period of field emission. 54

19 manufactured by ESLI Inc. Testing was performed in a vacuum For this reason, carbon fiber was chosen as the material 55
20 chamber with variable AK gap in the high vacuum range for fabrication of new custom cathodes for HPM devices at 56
21 (10−7 torr). High-speed optical imaging was performed in order Texas Tech University (TTU). For this article, we begin with a 57
22 to determine the uniformity of the generated plasma as well as
23 the e-beam. Voltage and current measurements were performed description of the general process of the cathode fabrication on 58

to determine diode impedance and perveance. a wooden mechanical loom in Section II. Section III presents 59
24
simulations to visualize effects of fiber patterning and modality 60
25 Index Terms— Carbon fiber, cathodes, generators, microwave
26 circuits, microwave oscillators, performance evaluation, radio on electric field uniformity. The Marx generator-fed vacuum 61

27 frequency (RF). test chamber is then discussed in Section IV, followed by 62

results for the custom cathodes when compared to a commer- 63

28 I. I NTRODUCTION cial bimodal carbon fiber cathode that is nearly identical to 64

29

30

31
T HE authors have been developing custom carbon fiber
cathodes for use in high power microwave (HPM) sys-
tems, with the motivation of utilizing one of these cathodes
one that has been tested previously by some of the authors [5],
[17], [18], [19], followed by lifetime testing and high speed
imaging of the cathodes that showed the most promising
65

66

67

32 in an in-development magnetically insulated line oscillator results in Section V. 68

33 (MILO). Large area (at least tens of cm2 ) cold cathodes are
34 the most commonly used in HPM devices, due to their ability II. C ARBON F IBER V ELVET P RODUCTION 69

35 to produce electron beams at current and voltage levels of The process of making the carbon fiber cathodes involved 70

36 several kA and hundreds of kV, respectively, over large areas. using a mechanical loom and commercially available 3k 71

37 While this is optimal for many HPM devices [1], it presents carbon fiber thread, where each thread used in the weaving 72

38 its own challenges by reducing the options of materials that process is comprised of 3000 individual strands of 7 μm car- 73

39 can be used to fulfill this purpose. Various cathodes have been bon fiber threads. To begin, a plain weave cloth is formed on 74

the loom, following the procedure previously described [20]. 75

Manuscript received 18 March 2022; revised 9 August 2022;
accepted 19 August 2022. This work was supported by the Office of The plain weave cloth is then worked into velvet by sewing 76

Naval Research (ONR) under Grant N00014-18-1-2384. The review of this thread around metal rods with a diameter of 1 mm in-between 77
article was arranged by Senior Editor W. Jiang. (Corresponding author: the cross-weaved threads of the plain weave, as shown in 78
Tyler Buntin.)
The authors are with the Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics, Figs. 1 and 2. This forms a series of loops that will create the 79

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA (e-mail: raised piles of threads for explosive emission when cut. Once 80
tyler.buntin@ttu.edu). the rod is inserted, a graphite high vacuum epoxy is used to 81
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at
https://doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2022.3202884. hold the threads in place when the rods are removed. After 82

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2022.3202884 the epoxy cures, the rods are removed and a surgical knife is 83

0093-3813 © 2022 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

Fig. 1. Diagram showing how the loops are formed around the metal rods
over the backing carbon fiber weave.

Fig. 2. Rods attached to the backing cloth via sewn loops.

Fig. 4. Example of fiber cluster arrangement in the simulation.

and modal patterning upon the shape, overall uniformity, 101

and strength of the electric field close to the cathode. Each 102

simulation was performed using the same base geometry 103

such that the anode and cathode are circular planes with 104

a 5 cm diameter to match the experimental cathodes, with 105

fiber clusters extending from the cathode toward the anode 106

separated by 10 mm from the fiber tips to the anode, with the 107

space between and around the A-K gap set to vacuum. The 108

fiber cluster geometry was simplified as a 0.4 mm diameter 109

cylinder set with the material properties of graphite to simulate 110

Fig. 3. Custom monomodal carbon fiber velvet cathode. the clustered fibers, or tufts, on the experimental cathodes. The 111

tufts are arranged in a square grid separated by 1.4 mm from 112

84 used to cut the loops, which spring upward after the tension center to center akin to the fabricated cathodes. An example of 113

85 holding them over the rods is released, forming two lines of the arrangement of tufts can be seen in Fig. 4. A dc voltage of 114

86 predominantly upright thread piles ∼1.5 mm tall. Each pile 100 kV was applied to the anode, and cathode was set as the 115

87 of threads is ∼3000 individual fibers, resulting in a density of ground 116

88 explosive emission points of ∼168 000/cm2 for the monomodal The monomodal case was tested with fiber heights of 117

89 cathode, which is shown in Fig. 3. For the bimodal velvet, the 1.5 mm like the experimental monomodal case, as well as 118

90 same process is followed with the exception that every other 2 mm to investigate whether fiber height had a significant 119

91 loop is set over two rods instead of one. This creates taller impact on electric field magnitude around the fiber tips. 120

92 piles at approximately 2 mm of height in between the 1.5 mm For the bimodal case, the fibers were at 1.5 and 2 mm 121

93 piles. The cloth is then affixed to a circular 304 stainless as in the experimental cathode. Two cases were tested for 122

94 steel base using the same graphite epoxy and is then cut to the bimodal simulation: one using the same linear pattern- 123

95 match the cathode area. A stainless steel field shaping ring ing as in the experimental case, and one using a checker- 124

96 is added to improve electron beam uniformity, as discussed board fiber pattern, which is a potential pattern for future 125

97 previously [17]. experimental testing. Examples of these patterns are shown 126

in Fig. 5. 127

We can see from Fig. 6 that having a bimodal fiber setup 128
98 III. S IMULATION R ESULTS causes an increase in electric field strength of approximately 129

99 A set of electrostatic simulations using ANSYS Maxwell 20% when compared to the monomodal case. It is also seen 130

100 3-D were performed to explore the effect of fiber height in the figure that increasing the fiber height in the monomodal 131

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BUNTIN et al.: EVALUATION OF EXPLOSIVE EMISSION CARBON FIBER CATHODES FOR HPM DEVICES 3

Fig. 5. Fiber grid diagrams for (a) linear grid and (b) checkerboard grid.

Fig. 6. Electric field versus distance from cathode base along the center of
the central fiber for various fiber heights and patterns.

132 case results in a very similar electric field strength for the
133 same A-K gap distance, which shows that fiber height is not
134 the driving force behind the electric field increase from the
135 monomodal to the bimodal case.
136 Field uniformity is one of the key metrics to characterizing
137 these cathodes. By plotting the electric field magnitude tangen-
138 tially across the fiber cluster tips we can compare the various
139 tuft layouts and their electric fields. Fig. 7 shows 2-D field
140 diagrams for each of the simulated cathode tuft arrangements
141 at the same scale of electric field, placed 1 μm above the fiber
142 tips in each case. The solid black ring on the interior of the
143 field imagery represents the diameter of the cathode base so
144 as to see the field drop off as it extends beyond the cathode Fig. 7. Two-dimensional electric field patterns for the (a) monomodal,
145 edge. It can be seen that the field around each taller tuft in the (b) linear bimodal, and (c) checkerboard bimodal cathode.
146 bimodal cases are more uniform when compared to the field
147 around the tufts of the monomodal case.
148 Fig. 8 shows the electric field along a line across the center the field behaves in Fig. 8(b), the addition of the bimodal 156

149 of the monomodal and bimodal cathodes, also placed at a fibers leads to a more uniform field with higher average field 157

150 distance of 1 μm above the tips of the carbon fiber tufts; levels. The checkerboard patterned bimodal cathode had the 158

151 this line can be seen in Fig. 7 as the horizontal black line. overall highest strength field, but had more variation in field 159

152 Due to the tufts being represented as flat-topped cylinders, strength across its length, as shown in Fig. 8(c). The higher 160

153 there are spikes at the cylinder edge and valleys as the field value peaks of the checkerboard case are the fields above the 161

154 approaches the center of the tuft. Fig. 8(a) shows the field 2 mm fibers while the valleys between them are the 1.5 mm 162

155 across the monomodal case, which when compared to how fibers. 163

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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

164 IV. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP

165 A. Vacuum Chamber and Marx Generator
166 The cathodes tested utilize the same field shaping ring
167 as described in Section II, and all have an emission area
168 of ≈20 cm2 . The commercial carbon fiber is affixed to a
169 carbon base, while the three custom cathodes built at Texas
170 Tech are affixed to a stainless steel base. All of the cathodes
171 were tested within a sealed vacuum chamber at pressure ranges
172 of 10−6 −10−7 torr. The chamber is a stainless steel three-way
173 tee with glass windows on two of the ends to allow for optical
174 imaging of the A-K gap from two different angles. The cath-
175 odes were attached to a linear actuator with a bellows, allowing
176 for variations in the A-K gap during testing without affecting
177 the internal vacuum pressure. The anode used is a 1 mm thick
178 pyrolytic graphite disk, with this anode material manufactured
179 by MinTEQ. A honeycomb pattern of 435 3.2 mm holes is cut
180 into the anode, which gives it 70% effective transparency; this
181 anode design is typically used in virtual cathode oscillators
182 (vircators), such as the devices described in [16], [18], [19],
183 [21], and [22]. This transparency also assists when performing
184 high-speed imaging with a scintillator to determine electron
185 beam uniformity. A simplified diagram of the test chamber
186 setup can be seen in Fig. 9.
187 The camera used for the imaging was an Andor iStar
188 intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) and was positioned
189 such that the lens was 20 cm from the cathode surface.
190 The camera was placed inside of a mesh copper cage that
191 connected to the vacuum chamber housing as a path to ground
192 to protect it from the electromagnetic interference produced
193 by the transient processes that accompany the generation of
194 an electron beam in the diode.
195 In order to drive the A-K gap in the chamber, an eight-
196 stage Marx generator is used, with spark gaps in a pressurized
197 tube making up the switching mechanism. Each stage consists
198 of two 1 megaohm charging resistors along with a 220 nF,
199 50 kV rated capacitor. Each capacitor is charged to a voltage
200 of 13 kV, which leads to approximately 150 J of stored energy
201 in the device for each pulse. The output voltage and current
202 from this charging voltage being fired into the diode load range
203 from 70 to 80 kV and 2–4 kA, dependent on gap distances. The
204 generator impedance is around 15 . The design of this Marx
205 generator is similar to the one tested by Buntin et al. [23].
206 A Pearson coil at the back of the Marx generator on the
207 return path to the capacitor ground measures the total current
208 present in the circuit. A custom water resistor with a known,
209 stable resistance of 150  in parallel with the vacuum chamber
210 load alongside a second Pearson coil is used to measure the
211 voltage pulse that is applied to the A-K gap within the vacuum
212 chamber.

213 V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS

214 A. Single Shot Testing Fig. 8. Electric field versus distance across cathode base 1 μm above
215 As described in [24], the initial voltage–current characteris- fiber tips for the (a) monomodal cathode, (b) linear bimodal cathode, and
216 tic of a high-power vacuum diode device is time-varying, with (c) checkerboard bimodal cathode. The dashed line in Fig. 7 represents the
line the field was plotted along for these figures.
217 dependency shifting from the geometry and material properties
218 of the anode and cathode to a vacuum arc from the collapsing
219 plasma cloud. The startup stage, where the geometry plays as the cathodes are all the same material but have different 221

220 the greatest role, is the main area of interest for this research, configurations of their fiber patterning. 222

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BUNTIN et al.: EVALUATION OF EXPLOSIVE EMISSION CARBON FIBER CATHODES FOR HPM DEVICES 5

Fig. 9. Simple diagram showing the vacuum test chamber setup. The cathode
is attached to a 25 mm range bellows to allow for adjustment of the A-K gap.

223 After each shot, the internal pressure of the chamber rises
224 up to the 10−6 torr range before being pumped back down to
225 the 10−7 torr range by the attached vacuum pump after about a
226 minute. Shots are only taken after the vacuum is restored to the
227 lower range, in order to ensure consistency between conditions
228 when comparing and characterizing the various cathodes.
229 Voltage and current data for each cathode was captured
230 at gap distances from 10 to 22 mm in 2 mm increments.
231 The voltage and current waveforms for the cathodes at the
232 12 mm gap distance can be seen in Fig. 10. During the voltage
233 rise, there is a small dip a few tens of nanoseconds into the
234 pulse that signifies the cathode “turns on” and begins to emit
235 electrons. For the commercial cathode it can be seen that this
236 happens at a voltage of around 60 kV, with the plain weave
237 cloth happening around 55 kV and both the monomodal and
238 bimodal velvets occurring at a voltage of 50 kV. The peak
239 current density during diode operation is roughly 40–50 A/cm2
240 at the charging voltage chosen, which could be increased at
241 higher vacuum levels. It can also be noted that when the
242 voltage pulse rapidly decays to 0, the A-K gap is being
243 shorted by the plasma. The bimodal cathode experiences a
244 difference in operation when compared to the others, as seen
245 in Fig. 10(d), in that the diode current polarity does not change
246 when the voltage drops to zero. This is likely due to the
247 underdamped response of the Marx generator into the diode
248 load impedance.
249 The perveance and impedance of each of these shots were Fig. 10. Voltage and current waveforms at 12 mm gap distance for
(a) commercial velvet, (b) custom plain weave cloth, (c) custom monomodal
250 calculated and are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. The perveance velvet, and (d) custom bimodal velvet cathodes.
251 of the three velvet cathodes remain fairly similar for the
252 first 500 ns of the pulse, before the monomodal begins to
253 increase at a faster rate than the bimodal and commercial cathode does not have, signaling higher plasma emission and 257

254 velvet cathodes. When comparing the two bimodal cathodes, lower beam uniformity toward the end of the pulse for the 258

255 the commercial cathode has large fluctuations in its perveance commercial cathode. The diode impedance for the plain weave 259

256 as it approaches the end of the shot that the custom bimodal cloth is lower than all of the other tested cathodes, but the other 260

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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

Fig. 11. Comparison of perveances between cathodes at 12 mm gap distance.

Fig. 12. Comparison of impedances between cathodes at 12 mm gap distance.

261 performance metrics show that it is the least viable cathode for
262 HPM sources, while both the two custom velvets had lower
263 impedances than the commercially available option tested for
264 the majority of the pulse.

265 B. Lifetime Testing

266 Following these gap distance tests, lifetime testing was
267 performed at the most interesting gap distance of 12 mm. The
268 custom monomodal and the commercial bimodal cathodes,
269 alongside the custom bimodal cathode, had their lifetimes
270 tested by each receiving 500 shots from the Marx generator.
271 The diode currents and voltages were compared across every
272 hundred shots to rate performance as ablation of the carbon
Fig. 13. Current waveforms for every 100th shot at 12 mm gap distance
273 fiber occurred. From the lifetime current waveforms, shown for (a) commercial velvet, (b) custom monomodal velvet, and (c) custom
274 in Fig. 13, the monomodal velvet seemed to be the most bimodal velvet cathodes.
275 consistent, while the custom bimodal has longer pulse widths
276 and a flatter top. The commercially available velvet had the
277 greatest variance across the test regime, with no distinct trend The voltage waveforms across the lifetime of the custom 279

278 appearing as more shots were fired. velvets were also compared, as seen in Fig. 14, where it can 280

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BUNTIN et al.: EVALUATION OF EXPLOSIVE EMISSION CARBON FIBER CATHODES FOR HPM DEVICES 7

Fig. 14. Voltage waveforms for every 100th shot at 12 mm gap distance for
two custom-made carbon fiber cathodes.

Fig. 16. Direct images of the (a) commercial velvet and (b) custom
monomodal showing the plasma formation 500 ns into the shot.

C. Cathode Imaging 287

During the lifetime testing processes, high-speed images 288

of the cathode emission were taken both as direct images 289

and utilizing a scintillator to view the emitted electron beam. 290

The two windows at the end of the tee allow for images 291

of the area between the anode and cathode as well as the 292

area behind the anode, where the scintillator was placed 293

Fig. 15. Scintillator light emission after 500 shots for (a) commercial for those images. The images were taken using the ICCD 294
bimodal cathode and (b) custom monomodal cathode, both with 500 ns gate camera discussed previously, and the scintillator used was a 295
width.
Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics BC-412 plastic scintillator, 296

which was chosen due to its fast rise time (1 ns), ability to 297

detect charged particles, and large area to capture the entirety 298

281 be seen that the bimodal velvet has less variance across its of the cathode emission. A gate width of 500 ns was used to 299

282 pulsewidth in comparison to the monomodal velvet. There are capture the images in Fig. 15 after 500 shots on each cathode. 300

283 fewer rapid variations in the voltage across time, leading to This long gate width was chosen due to triggering delays in 301

284 a smoother voltage pulse. It is hypothesized that this would order to make sure the bulk of the electron beam was imaged. 302

285 also lead to a more uniform electron beam from the bimodal Both images are set to the same scaling, and by comparison it 303

286 velvet in comparison to the monomodal velvet. can be seen that the beam pattern of the commercially available 304

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8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

and showing that there can be areas devoid of fiber tips for 324

the explosive emission process. For the custom monomodal 325

cathode, the fibers flare out on the edges of the tufts, which 326

leads to a number of fibers not being oriented normal to the 327

cathode base. While both cathodes will experience explosive 328

emission due to the small tip surface area of the fibers 329

regardless of orientation, the custom cathodes are more likely 330

to experience surface flashover due to their orientation and 331

planned spacing between tufts, which allows for a reasonable 332

assumption that this mechanism is what causes the custom 333

cathodes to turn on at lower voltage thresholds compared to 334

the commercial cathode. 335

VI. S UMMARY AND C ONCLUSION 336

A low-cost process to fabricate carbon fiber velvet cathodes 337

was presented, alongside computer simulation and experi- 338

mental data to characterize the effectiveness of the cathodes 339

as electron beam emitters for HPM devices. The computer 340

simulations were of the electric field seen by the upright fibers 341

on the velvet and showed that a bimodal arrangement lead 342

to a more uniform electric field. A checkerboarded bimodal 343

pattern was also simulated, and showed peak field strength 344

similar to the bimodal linear cathode with a more uniform base 345

electric field. Experimental data measured the voltage across 346

the diode as well as the current that flowed through it, and used 347

those to calculate diode impedance and perveance, alongside 348

high-speed imaging both with and without a scintillator. 349

It can be seen from the presented dataset that the plain 350

weave cloth performs the worst from amongst the tested 351

cathodes. This is likely due to the lack of explosive emission 352

points, resulting in an inconsistent plasma cloud formation that 353

leads to faster gap closure. The custom monomodal velvet 354

cathode, on the other hand, performed comparably to the 355

commercial option in all of the tested parameters and was 356

capable of emitting at current densities around 150 A/cm2 . 357

Fig. 17. SEM images showing the (a) random distribution of the commercial When moving to the lifetime testing, it was shown that the 358
carbon fiber cathode and the (b) linear orientation of the fibers of the custom bimodal custom velvet outperformed the others in terms of 359
monomodal cathode.
pulsewidth and consistency of pulses. 360

This research shows that the methods used to create the 361

305 cathode was less uniform than that of the custom monomodal carbon fiber velvet on a wooden mechanical loom are viable 362

306 velvet cathode, and has a significant dead spot in the upper to produce cathodes for HPM devices at a fraction of the cost 363

307 right of the image. This same dead spot can be seen from the of commercially available options. The shot-to-shot variance 364

308 direct imaging of the cathodes without the scintillator as well, of the custom velvets was also less than the commercial option, 365

309 shown in Fig. 16(a), while the direct image of the monomodal resulting in consistent pulses which is important for HPM 366

310 case in Fig. 16(b) shows a more uniform emission pattern. devices. 367

311 Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were taken of

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 368
312 the custom monomodal cathode and the commercial velvet
313 before and after the 500 shot lifetime testing; images taken The authors would like to thank Dr. Bo Zhao and the 369

314 after the lifetime testing can be seen in Fig. 17. Both cathodes College of Arts and Sciences Microscopy Laboratory for 370

315 were covered in debris after testing, which was identified providing guidance and usage of their scanning electron micro- 371

316 as predominantly iron, likely from the ablation of the steel scope (SEM). 372

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