Compact high-current accelerators based on the radan SEF-303 pulsed power source

Compact RADAN-series high-current accelerators with a Tesla transformer have already demonstrated their large capabilities in the construction of diverse electrophysical apparatus, such as relativistic millimeter-band microwave oscillators, battery-supplied X-ray apparatus and gas lasers. Such accelerators have been efficiently used for studying rapid processes in solid state physics, chemistry, and biology 111. Compactness, the absence of stringent requirements for vacuum conditions, rooms, and personnel qualification, low noise level, and compatibility with modern measuring equipment make an accelerator of this kind an inexpensive, efficient, and versatile research tool, especially in areas that are unconventional for pulsed power apparatus. A major drawback of such systems in that the gas discharge commutators and electronics tubes have a restricted life time, normally between lo5 and 106 pulses