This paper discusses the multi-year "campaign" to measure and reduce the transverse impedances of the original DARHT-2 accelerator cells in order to limit the beam-breakup instability (BBU) growth through the machine. A series of three prototype cells were designed, modeled, and measured. One of the most important methods for limiting the impedance was the introduction of ferrite absorbers in the oil region immediately upstream of the insulator. When properly tuned in terms of thickness, the effective Q's could be significantly reduced for both the 10" "standard" cells and the 14" "injector" cells. We also present a new experimental method (twin lead-loop) to measure the transverse impedance. This method has a number of important advantages over the well-known TSD approach, especially in the low Q regime. For the final prototype standard cell design, we found that Z-perp could be limited to <300 ohms/m with Q's ranging from 3 to 6. There was reasonable agreement between measurements and simulation results from the AMOS code (peak amplitudes within 25-30 percent) with the exception that the resonant mode around 200 MHz had a double-peaked structure that could not be reproduced by simulation.

We report upon recent experimental measurements made of RF properties of the intercell assembly of the second axis accelerator[1] of Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility at LANL. The intercells provide both pumping and diagnostic access to the main DARHT-II beamline. Their design includes a pumping plenum separated from the main beam pipe by return current rods together with RF shielding provided by a copper-coated stainless steel mesh. Measurements using the twin lead technique (see Ref. [2]) at low frequencies (f < 200 MHz) suggest a constant value for the ratio h of the radial and azimuthal magnetic field components to which the transverse impedance is linearly related. We find that these results compare favorably to predictions from a simple analytic, lumped circuit model which includes the effects of the mesh and return current rods. We also present RF loop-to-loop frequency scans above beam pipe cutoff (~;600 MHz) showing the existence of many RF modes with relatively high Q's.