Shot reproducibility of the self-magnetic-pinch diode at 4.5 MV

In experiments conducted at Sandia National Laboratories’ RITS-6 accelerator, the self-magnetic-pinch diode exhibits significant shot-to-shot variability. Specifically, for identical hardware operated at the same voltage, some shots exhibit a catastrophic drop in diode impedance. A study is underway to identify sources of shot-to-shot variations which correlate with diode impedance collapse. The scope of this report is limited to data collected at 4.5-MV peak voltage and sources of variability which occur away from the diode, such as sheath electron emission and trajectories, variations in pulsed power, load and transmission line alignment, and different field shapers. We find no changes in the transmission line hardware, alignment, or hardware preparation methods which correlate with impedance collapse. However, in classifying good versus poor shots, we find that there is not a continuous spectrum of diode impedance behavior but that the good and poor shots can be grouped into two distinct impedance profiles. In poor shots, the sheath current in the load region falls from 16%–30% of the total current to less than 10%. This result will form the basis of a follow-up study focusing on the variability resulting from diode physics.