The compact linear accelerator program at Sandia National Laboratories

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/MODSYM.1990.201041· OSTI ID:6874940

Wilson, J M; Torrison, L L; Poukey, J W ^[1]; Adler, R J ^[2]; Humphries, S Jr ^[3]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
2. North Star Research Corp., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
3. New Mexico Univ., Albuquerque, NM (USA)

Sandia National Laboratories is currently investigating methods of producing long (several microseconds), high voltage (tens of megavolts), kiloampere electron beam pulse trains using compact linear accelerators. These machines will consist of many ferrite- or air-core cavities sized for operation at 200-250 kV with pulsewidths of 5-25 nanoseconds. A bipolar voltage waveform of 20-100 MHz frequency is required for each accelerator cavity. The electron beam is generated and accelerated during the negative half-cycle of the input waveform, while the positive half-cycle between accelerating pulses is used to reset the ferrite cores. The electron beam generated and accelerated using such a device, therefore, is actually a long train of very short beams. At present, each cavity of our prototype accelerator (PTO) is driven by a ringing transmission line system of 5-10 ohm impedance. The core impedance and the beam impedance combine to reduce the driving voltage by approximately ten percent each half-cycle. In an effort to produce more, higher-fidelity drive pulses for a compact linear accelerator, we are now pursuing several modulator options that require fast, high-voltage, kiloampere toggling switches. The switches or switching schemes under study include photoconductive semiconductor switches, the PULSATRON switch produced by Quantum Diagnostics of Hauppauge, NY, a gated vacuum triode, and a swept electron beam oscillator. This paper will describe the original PTO design and results, the modulator experiments and results, and the next-generation cavity design.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOD
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6874940
• Report Number(s): SAND-90-0333C; CONF-9006176-4; ON: DE90013061
• Resource Relation: Conference: 19. power modulator symposium, San Diego, CA (USA), Jun 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
DESIGN
BEAM INJECTION
ELECTRON BEAMS
MODULATION
POWER TRANSMISSION LINES
WAVE FORMS
ACCELERATORS
BEAMS
LEPTON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
430100* - Particle Accelerators- Design
Development
& Operation