Re-trapping and powerflow results of a large area diode on the high impedance RITS-3 MITL

Sandia National Laboratories is leading a research effort into understanding and designing high brightness X-ray sources for radiographic purposes. Of fundamental importance to this effort is an understanding of the electron currents being delivered to the diode. This power-flow can be manipulated by a mismatching of the diode load to the accelerator, forcing a rejoining of some sheath current into bound current. This is then a different accelerator point, achieved by increasing the diode current while minimally impacting the voltage. This paper presents results of this retrapping of electrons on a high impedance magnetically insulated transmission line with a large area diode on RITS-3. The mismatching of the diode to the accelerator was accomplished by varying the cathode-converter gap from 6 to 16 cm in 2 cm increments