Electron flow and impedance of an 18-blade frustum diode

Technical Report · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:5463774

Sanford, T W.L.; Lee, J R; Halbleib, J A; Quintenz, J P; Coats, R S; Stygar, W A; Clark, R E; Faucett, D L; Webb, D; Heath, C E

A new, large-area, high-uniformity, flash x-ray source that efficiently couples electrical energy to photon energy has been successfully constructed and tested on the 1 MV, 2 MA electron accelerator SPEED. The source employs 18 individual blade-diodes arranged in the configuration of a frustum. Each blade was magnetically isolated on the real-cathode side of an anode foil, but not on the virtual-cathode side. The operation of the diode was heavily diagnosed using 24 Rogowski coils, a vacuum voltage monitor, pin diode detectors, an 80-element TLD array, and a fast-framing x-ray pinhole camera. The individual blade-diodes were found to exhibit line pinching, end-to-end pinching, and minimal electron reflexing through the Ta anode foil, with a radiation yield that agreed with Monte Carlo simulations. The end-to-end pinch location could be controlled by tapering the anode-cathode gap. The impedance depended on only the smallest spacing, and was independent of pinch location.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Pulse Sciences, Inc., San Leandro, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5463774
• Report Number(s): SAND-84-1424; ON: DE85016200
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700208* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Inertial Confinement Technology
CATHODES
DIODE TUBES
ELECTRODES
ELECTRON DRIFT
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
FERMIONS
FOILS
IMPEDANCE
LEPTONS
RADIATION SOURCES
X-RAY EQUIPMENT
X-RAY SOURCES