Measurement of fast risetime megampere currents by quartz gauge

Quartz gauges have been used on the Sandia National Laboratories Proto II accelerator to measure current in the magnetically insulated transmission line at the 11 TW power level. The accelerator delivers 3.5 MA at 2 x 10/sup 14/ A/s in a 40 ns pulse to a 0.0127 m diameter aluminum liner to produce a high density plasma. At this radius and dI/dt levels, the B-dot monitors no longer function for the measurement of load current because the monitor suffers electrical breakdown. Quartz pressure gauges mounted at a radius of 0.0086 m have successfully measured the magnetic pressure due to the load current with nanosecond temporal resolution.