Design and simulation of a novel klynac device for generation of bremsstrahlung radiation

Bremsstrahlung radiation is highly sought after for endless applications from medical and biological to military uses. Bremsstrahlung radiation is typically produced by nuclear reactors and linear accelerators, these sources are rarely practical due to their large sizes. A novel device is being designed and tested at LANL to meet the need for a compact bremsstrahlung radiation source. The klynac, a combined klystron - linac device, is designed to be a compact source that accelerates an electron beam from a klystron source to 1 MeV. The novel device consists of 8 cavities, the first four are coupled klystron cavities and the second four serve as accelerating cavities. This device operates at 2.856 GHz. The klystron section uses a resonant cavity circuit where the first three cavities are locked together. The fourth klystron cavity is locked to the following accelerator cavities to ensure frequency stability of the device. The electron beam from the klystron cavities is reduced in current by an iris that allows 10% of the beam to pass to the accelerating cavities. Design and optimization has been performed though PIC simulations. Direct experimental verification of the klynac concept is underway.