Beam Breakup in an Advanced Linear Induction Accelerator

Abstract

Two linear induction accelerators (LIAs) have been in operation for a number of years at the Los Alamos Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility. A new multipulse LIA is being developed. We have computationally investigated the beam breakup (BBU) instability in this advanced LIA. In particular, we have explored the consequences of the choice of beam injector energy and the grouping of LIA cells. We find that within the limited range of options presently under consideration for the LIA architecture, there is little adverse effect on the BBU growth. The computational tool that we used for this investigation was the beam dynamics code linear accelerator model for DARHT (LAMDA). To confirm that LAMDA was appropriate for this task, we first validated it through comparisons with the experimental BBU data acquired on the DARHT accelerators.