Evaluation of self-magnetically-pinched diodes as high-resolution, high-voltage radiography sources

Summary form only given. The merits of several high-resolution, pulsed-power-driven, radiography sources are examined with numerical simulation for voltages up to 10 MV. The charged particle dynamics in these self-magnetically-pinched diodes, as well as electron scattering and energy loss in the high-atomic-number target, are treated with the particle-in-cell code LSP. High-voltage rod-pinch experiments are performed in negative polarity to maximize the extracted dose. The LSP/CYLTRAN model is used to examine three /spl sim/50 /spl Omega/ negative-polarity diode geometries for voltages up to 10 MV. For a 2-mm-diameter reentrant rod-pinch diode, a forward-directed dose of 740 rad (LiF) at one meter in a 50 ns full-width at half-maximum radiation pulse is predicted. These results indicate that the non-reentrant rod-pinch diode and the planar self-magnetically pinched diode may be attractive pulsed-power-driven radiography sources for voltages of up to 10 MV.