ADVANCED PULSED POWER CIRCUITS FOR ION LINEAR INDUCTION ACCELERATORS

THIS PROJECT IS DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE THE UTILITY OF VARISTOR AND NOVEL TUBE CIRCUITS AS A MEANS OF STABILIZING THE LONGITUDINAL BUNCHING INSTABILITY OF INTENSE ION BEAMS APPLIED TO ION BEAM FUSION. WORK AT LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT ZINC OXIDE VARISTORS CAN BEUSED TO CONTROL THE VOLTAGE VARIATIONS ON AN INDUCTION ACCELERATOR CELL. MEASUREMENTS ARE BEING MADE ON VARISTORS IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THEIR LIFE AND TO PERFORM CIRCUIT SIMULATION STUDIES IN ORDER TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES THAT CAN IMPROVE THE FIELD PENETRATION OF VARISTORS ON FAST TIME SCALES. A NOVEL VACUUM TUBE REGULATION TECHNIQUE IS ALSO PLANNED THAT MINIMIZES OR ELIMINATES UNDESIRABLE VOLTAGE FLUCTUATIONS CAUSED BY CURRENT FLUCTUATIONS. THIS TETRODE TECHNIQUE CAN ALSO BE USED FOR ZERO-ORDER SWITCHING OF THE PULSE POWER SYSTEM AND FOR FINE CONTROL OF THE VOLTAGE. NUMERICAL ELECTRON OPTICS STUDIES OF THIS TECHNIQUE ARE BEING PERFORMED DURING PHASE I, LEADING TO A DETAILED DESIGN OF A PHASE II EXPERIMENT. IF SUCCESSFUL, A COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION TO THE LONGITUDINAL INSTABILITY WILLRESULT FROM THIS WORK.