Experiments investigating the effects of the accelerating gap voltage pulse on the ion focused (IFR) high current electron recirculators

The lifetime of the Ion Focusing Regime (IFR) channel following the pulsing of the post-accelerating gaps is critical for an open-ended, spiral recirculating electron linear accelerator. It dictates the number of allowable beam recirculations through the gap. In the case of a racetrack configuration, its is significant but not as critical, since the presence of the electron beam focuses the ions and lengthens the lifetime of the ion channel. It was established that pulsing the accelerating gap perturbs the IFR channel. However, for the parameters studied, the lifetime is long enough to allow at least four beam recirculations in a spiral device. In addition, cusp fields positioned upstream and downstream from the gap prevent it from perturbing the IFR channel