Light-controlled pulsed x-ray tube with photocathode

Unstable mechanical structure, low energy efficiency, and cooling requirements limit the application of conventional x-ray tubes based on filament as cathode in several academic areas. In this paper, we demonstrate a light-controlled pulsed x-ray tube using multialkali cathode as electron generator. The photocathode active area of the light controlled x-ray tube is 13.2 cm² (41 mm in diameter), which provides high photoelectron-emitting efficiency up to 0.288 mA/lm in 460-nm LED and 2.37-mA maximum tube current. Furthermore, the modulation ability from 1 kHz to 100 kHz of the x-ray tube is tested. The results suggest that the light-controlled pulsed x-ray tube has easy modulation and short x-ray pulse properties and is promising to be the next generation x-ray tube with wide applications in medical radiation therapy as well as the calibration for detectors and scintillators.