Suppressing beam-centroid motion in a long-pulse linear induction accelerator

The second axis of the dual-axis radiography of hydrodynamic testing (DARHT) facility produces up to four radiographs within an interval of 1.6 mu s. It does this by slicing four micropulses out of a 2-mu s long electron beam pulse and focusing them onto a bremsstrahlung converter target. The 1.8-kA beam pulse is created by a dispenser cathode diode and accelerated to more than 16 MeV by the unique DARHTAxis-II linear induction accelerator (LIA). Beam motion in the accelerator would be a problem for multipulse flash radiography. High-frequency motion, such as from beam-breakup (BBU) instability, would blur the individual spots. Low-frequency motion, such as produced by pulsed-power variation, would produce spot-to-spot differences. In this article, we describe these sources of beam motion, and the measures we have taken to minimize it. Using the methods discussed, we have reduced beam motion at the accelerator exit to less than 2% of the beam envelope radius for the high-frequency BBU, and less than 1/3 of the envelope radius for the low-frequency sweep.