Power gain using a short-conduction-time POS to drive an e-beam diode at 4 MV

Summary form only given, as follows. The plasma opening switch (POS) has been used for vacuum power conditioning in pulsed power systems. In this work, we report on experiments coupling a 0.5-MA and 3-MA conduction-current, <100-ns conduction-time POS to an e-beam diode load at a POS voltage of /spl sim/4 MV. This investigation differs from previous POS work at this voltage, in that a conventional, pinched-beam diode is used and the goal is to optimize the POS-load coupling to maximize the forward-directed bremsstrahlung dose rate and reduce the x-ray pulse width.