Radiographic characteristics of the self-magnetic pinch diode at RITS-6 and URSA-Minor

Summary form only given. The self-magnetic pinch (SMP) diode¹ is an intense flash x-ray radiographic source being developed at Sandia National Laboratories. The diode is capable of less than 3 mm spots and greater than 300 rads measured at 1 meter depending on the diode voltage. The diode is most commonly fielded on the Radiographic Integrated Test Stand (RITS-6), a 7.5 M V, 185 kA inductive voltage adder (IVA) accelerator and has also been tested on the URSA-Minor accelerator, an I VA based on the linear transformer driver (LTD) pulsed power generator at 0.9 and 2 M V. Various test objects including step wedges and resolution targets are used to study the spatial resolution and spectral characteristics of the radiographic system which of necessity include the x-ray source, shielding, and the detector system. These properties can be used to make general predictions of radiographic performance.