The Resistive-Wall Instability in Multipulse Linear Induction Accelerators

Abstract

The resistive-wall instability results from the Lorentz force on the beam due to the beam image charge and current. If the beam pipe is perfectly conducting, the electric force due to the image charge attracts the beam to the pipe wall, and the magnetic force due to the image current repels the beam from the wall. For a relativistic beam, these forces almost cancel, leaving a slight attractive force, which is easily overcome by external magnetic focusing. However, if the beam pipe is not perfectly conducting, the magnetic field due to the image current decays on a magnetic-diffusion time scale. If the beam pulse is longer than the magnetic diffusion time, the repulsion of the beam tail will be weaker than the repulsion of the beam head. In the absence of an external focusing force, this causes a head-to-tail sweep of the beam toward the wall. This instability is usually thought to be a concern only for long-pulse relativistic electron beams. However, with the advent of multipulse, high current linear induction accelerators, the possibility of pulse-to-pulse coupling of this instability should be investigated. Lastly, we have explored pulse-to-pulse coupling using the linear accelerator model for Dual Axis Radiography for Hydrodynamic Testing beam dynamics code, and we present the results of this paper.