FLASH X-RAY SOURCES POWERED BY BLUMLEIN PULSE GENERATORS

Described here is the progress in construction and characterization of pulse-power generators capable of discharging at high repetition rates. These devices consist of several triaxial Blumleins stacked in series at one end. The lines are charged in parallel and synchronously commuted with a single thyratron at the other end. In this way relatively low charging voltages are multiplied to give the desired discharge voltage without the need for complex Marx bank circuitry. Scaling of these stacked Blumlein generators to obtain open circuit voltages in excess of 0.5 MV is reported. Peak power generated by discharging into an X-ray diode exceeds 10(7) R/s and high repetition rates allow for an average emitted X-ray exposure rate of 25 R/s from a sequence of 40 ns pulses.