Immersed-Bz diode research on RITS at Sandia

Sandia National Laboratories is investigating and developing high-dose, high-brightness flash radiographic sources. One of the diodes we are developing is the immersed-Bz diode. This diode is a foil-less electron-beam diode with a long, thin, needle-like cathode inserted into the bore of a solenoid. The solenoidal magnetic field guides the electron beam emitted from the cathode to the anode while maintaining a small beam radius. The electron beam strikes a thin, high-atomic-number anode and produces bremsstrahlung. Recently, we reported on an extensive series of experiments¹ where an immersed-Bz diode was fielded on the RITS-3^2,3 pulsed power accelerator, a 3-cell inductive voltage generator that produced peak voltages between 4 and 5 MV, ∼140 kA of total current, and power pulse widths of ∼50 ns. The analysis of those results is on-going. A summary of those results and analyses are presented.