Design of 5 MA 100 ns repetitive linear-transformer-driver accelerator

The design of a linear-transformer-driver (LTD) accelerator for wire-array Z-pinch experiments was presented. The accelerator comprises 6 modules in parallel, and each of the module has 8 series 0.8 MA LTD cavities in a voltage adder configuration. A prototype cavity was built, employing a novel single-pulse-trigger method, as well as charging and trigger inductors. A full circuit modeling for the accelerator was conducted. Simulation result shows that a current pulse rising to 5.2 MA in 91 ns (10%-90%) can be delivered to the wire-array load, which is 1.2 cm in initial radius and 1mg in mass. The max kinetic energy of the load is 78kJ, which is 11.7% of the electric energy stored in the capacitors. This accelerator is supposed to enable a radiation energy efficiency of 20%-30%, providing a high efficient facility for research on fast Z-pinch and technologies for rep-rately operated accelerators.