Abstract
Pulsed-power driven x-ray radiographic systems are being developed to operate at higher power in an effort to increase source brightness and penetration power. Essential to the design of these systems is a thorough understanding of electron power flow in the transmission line that couples the pulsed-power driver to the load. In this paper, analytic theory and fully relativistic particle-in-cell simulations are used to model power flow in several experimental transmission-line geometries fielded on Sandia National Laboratories’ upgraded Radiographic Integrated Test Stand [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 28, 1653 (2000)]. Good agreement with measured electrical currents is demonstrated on a shot-by-shot basis for simulations which include detailed models accounting for space-charge-limited electron emission, surface heating, and stimulated particle emission. Resonant cavity modes related to the transmission-line impedance transitions are also shown to be excited by electron power flow. These modes can drive oscillations in the output power of the system, degrading radiographic resolution.
10 More- Received 26 December 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.11.040401
This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.