Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A pulsed electron source, comprising:a beam of neutral atoms;two lasers intersecting to define, at least partially, an interaction volume, the two lasers capable of causing a first excitation, but not an ionization, of a neutral atom from the beam of neutral atoms;a pulsed laser at least partially defining the interaction volume, the pulsed laser capable of causing a second excitation of the neutral atom, the second excitation taking the neutral atom to an extreme Rydberg state;a pulsed voltage source, the voltage source capable of removing an electron from the neutral atom in the extreme Rydberg state; andan accelerating electric field capable of accelerating the electron to an operating energy. 2. A method of producing a pulsed electron beam, comprising:a) exciting a neutral atom in an interaction region to an extreme Rydberg state;b) extracting an electron from the neutral atom in the interaction region when the electron is at orbit apogee, thus creating an ionized atom;c) removing the electron from the interaction region;d) removing the ionized atom from the interaction region after step c;e) accelerating the electron to a desired operating energy, thus producing an electron pulse; andf) repeating steps a-e to produce a series of electron pulses.