Intense electron beam propagation through insulators: Ionization front structure and stability

The structure and stability of the ionization front, which occurs as a high intensity electron beam propagates through an insulator, are considered. It is found that, due to the electric field ionization, the velocity of the front, Vf, has a nonmonotonic dependence on the beam density, nb, and in some particular beam density range Vf increases with increasing nb. Two instabilities of the ionization front associated with the electric field ionization process of the insulator are found: a long wavelength (⪞fewμ) and relatively slow (∼1013s−1) corrugation instability and a short wavelength (∼subμ) and relatively fast (∼few×1013s−1) electric field ionization instability.

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