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NASA NTRS1989

Free electron lasers driven by linear induction accelerators: High power radiation sources

The technology of Free Electron Lasers (FELs) and linear induction accelerators (LIAs) is addressed by outlining the following topics: fundamentals of FELs; basic concepts of linear induction accelerators; the Electron Laser Facility (a microwave FEL); PALADIN (an infrared FEL); magnetic switching; IMP; and future directions (relativistic klystrons). This presentation is represented by viewgraphs only.

Orzechowski, T. J.↗

DOE OSTI2015

Physics constraints on double-pulse LIA engineering

The options for advanced-radiography double-pulse linear induction accelerators (LIA) under consideration naturally fall into three categories that differ by the number of cells required. Since the two major physics issues, beam breakup (BBU) and corkscrew, are also dependent on the number of cells, it may be useful for the decision process to review the engineering consequences of beam physics constraints for each class. The LIAs can be categorized three different ways, and this report compares the different categories based upon the physics of their beams.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Magnetic-Field Diffusion Effects in Beam Position Monitors III: Application to DARHT-II Beam Data

Beam position monitors (BPMs) provide time-resolved measurements of the current and centroid position of high-current electron beams in linear induction accelerators (LIAs). One of the types of detectors used in BPMs is the B-dot loop, which generates a signal from the EMF due to the time varying magnetic flux through the loop. If some of the boundaries of the loop are composed of thick metal walls with finite conductivity, the resulting signal must be corrected for the magnetic field diffusion into the metal. The theoretically predicted flux due to diffusion is in remarkable agreement with experimental measurements. Although accurate BPM measurements of beam current require correction of magnetic field diffusion, accurate measurement of beam position requires no correction. In this note, we present experimental validation of current and position results from a prototype detector employing finite conductivity sensing areas, based on experiments on the DARHT-II LIA.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Current-Pulse Excitation of Beam Breakup in Scorpius

Perhaps the most dangerous instability for electron linear induction accelerators (LIA) is the beam breakup (BBU) instability. For flash-radiography LIAs like DARHT or Scorpius it is particularly troublesome, because low-level high-frequency BBU motion can blur the source spot. Theoretically, the number of e-foldings Γ of exponential BBU growth in an LIA is linearly proportional to beam current I, number of accelerating cells N, and transverse coupling impedance Z ⊥ , and inversely proportional to the strength of magnetic focusing B.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Correcting Magnetic-Field Diffusion Effects in Beam Position Monitors

Beam position monitors (BPMs) provide timeresolved measurements of the current and centroid position of high-current electron beams in linear induction accelerators (LIAs). The data from some types of BPMs can be influenced by magnetic field diffusion into the surrounding metal. We derive an estimate of the correction factor from first principles, and show how it is applied in practice to nearly eliminate the effect from the data.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Magnetic-Field Diffusion Effects in Beam Position Monitors I: Theory

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2016

Corkscrew Motion of an Electron Beam due to Coherent Variations in Accelerating Potentials

Corkscrew motion results from the interaction of fluctuations of beam electron energy with accidental magnetic dipoles caused by misalignment of the beam transport solenoids. Corkscrew is a serious concern for high-current linear induction accelerators (LIA). A simple scaling law for corkscrew amplitude derived from a theory based on a constant-energy beam coasting through a uniform magnetic field has often been used to assess LIA vulnerability to this effect. We use a beam dynamics code to verify that this scaling also holds for an accelerated beam in a non-uniform magnetic field, as in a real accelerator. Results of simulations with this code are strikingly similar to measurements on one of the LIAs at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

An Improved Beam Position Monitor for Scorpius and the DARHT Multi-Pulse Test Line

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Megavolt bremsstrahlung measurements from linear induction accelerators demonstrate possible use as a FLASH radiotherapy source to reduce acute toxicity

Abstract Recent studies indicate better efficacy and healthy tissue sparing with high dose-rate FLASH radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) cancer treatment. This technique delivers a prompt high radiation dose rather than fractional doses over time. While some suggest thresholds of > 40 Gy s −1 with a maximal effect at > 100 Gy s −1 , accumulated evidence shows that instantaneous dose-rate and irradiation time are critical. Mechanisms are still debated, but toxicity is minimized while inducing apoptosis in malignant tissue. Delivery technologies to date show that a capability gap exists with clinic scale, broad area, deep penetrating, high dose rate systems. Based on these trends, if FLASH-RT is adopted, it may become a dominant approach except in the least technologically advanced countries. The linear induction accelerator (LIA) developed for high instantaneous and high average dose-rate, species independent charged particle acceleration, has yet to be considered for this application. We review the status of LIA technology, explore the physics of bremsstrahlung-converter-target interactions and our work on stabilizing the electron beam. While the gradient of the LIA is low, we present our preliminary work to improve the gradient by an order of magnitude, presenting a point design for a multibeam FLASH-RT system using a single accelerator for application to conformal FLASH-RT.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2016

Scaling of induction-cell transverse impedance: effect on accelerator design

The strength of the dangerous beam breakup (BBU) instability in linear induction accelerators (LIAs) is characterized by the transverse coupling impedance Z ⊥ . This note addresses the dimensional scaling of Z ⊥ , which is important when comparing new LIA designs to existing accelerators with known i BBU growth. Moreover, it is shown that the scaling of Z ⊥ with the accelerating gap size relates BBU growth directly to high-voltage engineering considerations. It is proposed to firmly establish this scaling though a series of AMOS calculations.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Time-Resolved Beam Position Measurements for the Scorpius Multipulse Linear Induction Accelerator

Beam position monitors (BPMs) provide time-resolved measurements of the current and centroid position of high-current electron beams in linear induction accelerators (LIAs). One of the types of detectors used in BPMs is the B-dot loop, which generates a signal from the EMF due to the time varying magnetic flux through the loop. If some of the boundaries of the loop are composed of thick metal walls with finite conductivity, the resulting signal must be corrected for the magnetic field diffusion into the metal. The theoretically predicted flux due to diffusion is in remarkable agreement with experimental measurements. Although accurate BPM measurements of beam current require correction of magnetic field diffusion, accurate measurement of beam position requires no correction. In this note, we present a theoretical derivation and the experimental validation of this result.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Magnetic-Field Diffusion Effects in Beam Position Monitors II: Application to Calibration Single-Pulse Data

Beam position monitors (BPMs) provide time-resolved measurements of the current and centroid position of high-current electron beams in linear induction accelerators (LIAs). One of the types of detectors used in BPMs is the B-dot loop, which generates a signal from the EMF due to the time varying magnetic flux through the loop. If some of the boundaries of the loop are composed of thick metal walls with finite conductivity, the resulting signal must be corrected for the magnetic field diffusion into the metal. From first principles, we have derived the perturbation to BPM measurements due to this effect. The theoretical framework was used to design an algorithm for signal correction that does not require knowledge of the time history of the magnetic flux being measured. Corrected signals based on that process compared favorably with the know reference signals in a laboratory calibration test sequence.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Re-Analysis of DARHT Axis 2 S4 Magnet Sweep Measurements

The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility provides flash radiography capabilities using two electron Linear Induction Accelerators (LIA’s). Understanding fundamental properties of the electron beams is essential to optimizing spot size and dose for radiography. This work describes distribution measurements of a single-kicked electron beam (16.5MeV, 1.7kA, 60ns) at a location downstream at imaging station C on DARHT Axis 2. The beam at station C is focused by the S4 solenoid located upstream. The beam distribution is measured by imaging optical transition radiation (OTR) from electrons striking a 51-µm thick titanium foil. This data and analysis were originally published by Ekdahl. The results here are a re-analysis of the asymmetric halo emittance contribution as compared to the emittance resulting from the FWHM of the distribution. This is accomplished using xtr2 fits to the data which include non-linear magnetic field effects in S4. Also examined are the calculated S4 spherical aberration contributions to the emittance using xtr.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Electron-Beam Corkscrew Motion in an Advanced Linear Induction Accelerator

Scorpius is a multipulse linear induction accelerator (LIA) under development for flash radiography. Because it has substantially more cells than present LIAs, higher magnetic focusing fields are needed to suppress beam breakup (BBU). Therefore, it is more susceptible to corkscrew motion of the beam, which also depends on beam energy spread and focusing magnet misalignments. For energy spread and alignment tolerances expected for Scorpius, a magnetic tune designed to suppress BBU is shown to produce corkscrew motion within the range that can be controlled through the use of steering dipoles on existing LIAs. Finally, a gap-voltage modulation scheme is shown to almost completely eliminate chromatic effects such as corkscrew.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

High-Voltage Breakdown Penalties for the Beam-Breakup Instability

The strength of the dangerous beam breakup (BBU) instability in linear induction accelerators (LIAs) is determined by the transverse coupling impedance Z ⊥ of the induction cell cavity. For accelerating gap width w less than the beam pipe radius b, the transverse impedance is theoretically proportional to w/b, favoring narrow gaps to suppress BBU. On the other hand, cells with narrow gaps cannot support high accelerating gradients, because of electrical breakdown and shorting of the gap. Thus, there is an engineering trade-off between BBU growth and accelerating gradient, which must be considered for next generation LIAs now being designed. In this article this tradeoff is explored, using a simple pillbox cavity as an illustrative example. For this model, widening the gap to reduce the probability of breakdown increases BBU growth, unless higher magnetic focusing fields are used to further suppress the instability.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Beam Envelope Stability in an Advanced Linear Induction Accelerator

A new linear induction accelerator (LIA) is under development for multipulse flash radiography. Because it has substantially more cells than present LIAs, higher magnetic focusing fields are needed to suppress beam breakup (BBU). It is, therefore, more susceptible to the parametric beam envelope instability (PEI), which has an instability threshold that has usually been typified by the vacuum phase advance per cell exceeding some large fraction of π . Here we derive a threshold criterion for PEI that depends not only on the magnetic field, but also on the beam space charge and emittance. A tune designed to suppress BBU in Scorpius is shown to be stable to the PEI according to this criterion, and also by the lack of emittance growth in particle-in-cell (PIC) code simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Cathode Side-emission Mitigation for Linear Induction Accelerators

Linear induction accelerators (LIAs) are one of the main technologies used in creating flash x-rays used for diagnosing hydrodynamic experiments. The quality of the data produced in these experiments is dependent on the dose of x-rays generated via bremsstrahlung radiation. There are several electron beam quantities that effect the amount of dose extracted from the bremsstrahlung radiation, such as beam instabilities, corkscrew motion, and beam emittance. Injector design is key in delivering well-behaved electron beams to the accelerator, and design choices include components such as anode-cathode (AK) gap dimensions based on required voltage and current, shroud shaping, and cathode type and composition. Thermionic cathodes have shown reliable performance in electron emission, however, if enough of the cathode side is subject to high-enough electric field values, electrons can be emitted. This issue is more likely to happen when the cathode is treated with materials that have lower work functions, which is common for cathodes used in LIAs. These extra electrons can work their way through the rest of the beam, inducing high non-linearities in phase space which can increase the emittance of this beam. In this paper we outline conducted trade-space studies where we examined different shaping parameters of the cathode shroud design to decrease the effect side electrons may have on the beam emittance. Particle trajectories are determined by electric potential contours across the face of the cathode shroud component, and so we hypothesize that the proper shaping of the cathode-shroud interface can tune the electric field to mitigate the effect of side electrons. Electron beam transport is simulated down the length of the injector and the beam quality is diagnosed by studying the emittance as a function of position. Acceptable emittance increase is recorded and noted to meet radiographic requirements.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Steering an intense relativistic electron beam in a linear induction accelerator

The best electron beam transport through a linear induction accelerator (LIA) is achieved when the beam is well centered on the magnetic axis of the focusing solenoids. Since the beam may be injected offset from, or at an angle to, the centerline, dipole magnets are usually provided as a means to steer the beam and center it. Steering may be accomplished by trial and error, but this is very time consuming, especially for accelerators with a low repetition rate for beam position measurements and dipole adjustments. With this in mind, this article presents a steering method requiring a minimal number of measurements and adjustments to position the beam at any desired location, including positioning on the centerline.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗