Design and projected performance of a compact, portable plasma-radiation-source generator at the Idaho accelerator center

Summary form only given. Ever since the x pinch was first proposed¹, it has created great interest as a short pulse (<;1 ns), intense x-ray radiation source that could be used in different applications in physics^2-4, biology⁵, and radiography technology⁶. In this paper, we present the electrical design and estimated x-ray performance of a compact, portable x-pinch plasma-radiation-source generator capable of supplying 180-kA peak current with 150-ns, 0-100 rise time. Our design utilizes only four, fast high-current capacitors discharged simultaneously in parallel into a low-inductance “matched” x-pinch load⁷. LTspice⁸ simulations shows the good agreement with predicted peak current, voltage, and rise time values. The projected x-ray performance from a Cu 25-μm x pinch is at least 100 mJ in a pulse 30-ns FWHM for photon energy above 800 eV. As we know, there are no currently such compact and portable x-pinch drivers readily available for different radiography experiments.