A recent shot series on the Saturn accelerator was done to both better diagnose machine and load operating parameters, and to examine whether more current to Saturn's ring-diode radiation load could increase radiation output. This work is being done in preparation for a potential upgrade to the machine. Critical to this experiment was current measurement in the vacuum magnetically-insulated...
For over a decade, velocimetry based techniques have been used to infer the electrical current delivered to dynamic materials properties experiments on pulsed power drivers such as the Z Machine.[1] Though originally developed for planar load geometries, in recent years inferring the current delivered to cylindrical coaxial loads has become a valuable diagnostic tool for numerous platforms...
The Plasma, Pulsed Power, and Microwave Laboratory at the University of Michigan (UM) is home to two large pulsed-power drivers, the Michigan Electron Long Beam Accelerator (MELBA) and the Michigan Accelerator for Inductive Z-pinch Experiments (MAIZE). MELBA is a Marx-Abramyan generator capable of generating a 10 kA electron beam at -1 MV for up to 1 µs; this accelerator is currently...
Historically, the design of magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines (MITLs) was based on successful prior MITL designs, experience & intuition, and simple theory. E&M Particle-in-Cell (PIC) codes were often used more to validate a MITL design than as a primary, iterative design tool. We have used the Screamer circuit code to optimize MITL design based on the assumptions that a...
This study serves to describe three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a tunable reflex-triode virtual cathode oscillator (vircator). Experimental data from the compact hard-tube reflex-triode vircator developed at Texas Tech University (TTU) is used to validate simulated results. The vircator developed at TTU is capable of burst-mode operation at pulse repetition rates (PRFs)...
Helical designs have previously been selected for high power pulsed antennas due to their ability to radiate a high power circularly polarized signal over a relatively wide bandwidth. However, conventional techniques to increase the gain, including both increasing the number of turns of the helix and forming arrays of helical elements, greatly increase the size and weight of the antenna. While...
