"NON-PERTURBING TIME DEPENDENT ELECTRON BEAM DENSITY DIAGNOSTIC."

WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE USE OF SENSITIVE AND NON-PERTURBING OPTICAL TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE TIME-DEPENDENT ELECTRON BEAM DENSITIES, PARTICULARLY IN VACUUM RF SOURCES. OUR APPROACH INVOLVES NEW AND INNOVATIVE IMPLEMENTATIONS OF A PREVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATED OPTICAL FREQUENCY-DOMAIN TECHNIQUE, CALLED HETERODYNE SIDEBAND INTERFEROMETRY (HSI), TO MEASURE RF-FREQUENCY FOURIER COMPONENTS OF THE DENSITY. A NEW ENHANCEMENT OF ORDINARY OPTICAL INTERFEROMETRY, UTILIZING THE SAME EQUIPMENT AS HSI, IS PROPOSED TO MEASURE THE DC (TIME AVERAGED) DENSITY COMPONENT. WE POINT OUT HEREIN WAYS BY WHICH CERTAIN QUANTITATIVE DENSITY INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED WITH A MINIMUM AMOUNT OF DATA TAKING AND ANALYSIS, BUT WE ALSO PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE AND VERIFY MORE EXTENSIVE DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES WHICH CAN ALLOW COMPLETE CHARACTERIZATION OF BEAM DENSITY AS A FUNCTION OF BOTH TIME AND SPACE. WE ALSO PROPOSE TO MAKE DETAILED, QUANTITATIVE COMPARISONS WITH ALTERNATIVE DENSITY MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES, AND TO GENERATE A COMPLETE DESIGN OF A PROTOTYPE DENSITY DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM TO BE BUILT AND TESTED DURING PHASE II. THE SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED WITH PARTICULAR HDL DEVELOPMENTAL RF SOURCE IN MIND, BUT WILL ALSO BE DESIGNED TO BE READILY APPLIED TO VIRTUALLY ANY CURRENT OR FUTURE RF-SOURCE OF INTEREST TO THE ARMY.