Charged, Internally Switched Transmission Line Configurations for Electron Acceleration

High current pulsed electron beams may be accelerated with nominally 100% efficiency using induction accelerators based on stages of charged internally-switched constant-impedance transmission lines. Under certain conditions one obtains a repeating open circuit voltage waveform which can, in principle, be used to transfer 100% of stored enqrgy to a beam which is recirculated and this would permit a higher overall acceleration gradienit. We have also identified some efficient three line arrangements which could be exploited in the single pass mode. Some of the fundamental practical limitations to these concepts, such as the pulse distortion at line discontinuities and coupling to the beam, have been addressed.