Electron beam accelerator with magnetic pulse compression and accelerator switching

摘要

An electron beam accelerator comprising an electron beam generator-injector to produce a focused beam of >/=0.1 MeV energy electrons; a plurality of substantially identical, aligned accelerator modules to sequentially receive and increase the kinetic energies of the beam electrons by about 0.1-1 MeV per module. Each accelerator module includes a pulse-forming network that delivers a voltage pulse to the module of substantially 0.1-1 MeV maximum energy over a time duration of