Generation of an intense electron beam with sub-nanosecond duration using multi-stage autoacceleration

An intense relativistic electron beam with a duration of 0.8ns was obtained by four-stage multicavity autoacceleration. The electron beam with an ener gy of 500 keV and a duration of 12ns was injected into coaxial cavities con nected in tandem with decreasing lengths. In addition, electrons in the las t one 16th part of their duration were accelerated. The energy of the most accelerated part was 1.1 MeV when a single cavity was used at each stage. T he energy increased to 1.3 MeV when cavities of the same length were introd uced in each stage.