Status Of The Proof-Of-Concept Experiment For The Spiral Line Induction Accelerator

1407_44An experiment to evaluate the feasibility of the spiral line induction accelerator (SLIA) as a compact high current accelerator is currently underway at Pulse Sciences, Inc. The experiment involves injecting a 3.5 MeV, 10 kA electron beam into a strong focusing racetrack spiral transport line with two passes through two 1.5 MV induction accelerating units, giving a nominal 9.5 MeV output. The status of hardware fabrication and full-scale component tests are summarized with emphasis on the electrical design of the injector and accelerating cells. Initial experimental results at 1 MeV are reported on beam matching and transport in stellarator fields, and on the design and testing of the shielded (coaxial) accelerating gaps to minimize the beam breakup (BBU) instability.