Current viewing resistors (shunts) for magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines

We describe a current viewing resistor {CVR) which measures current in magnetically insulated feeds (MITLs) of pulsed power accelerators. The advantage of a CVR for this application is that, by keeping the feed geometry smooth, it does not disturb the electron space-charge flow in the gap. In this paper we review the transient behavior of CVRs associated with diffusion of magnetic field in the sensing element, the errors introduced in the measurement by joule heating, a CVR design that minimizes this error, and measurements with a CVR in an MITL environment.