Development of high-power pulsed radiation sources in any frequency range requires both generation of high power to drive the source and increasing the efficiency of supplied power to radiated electromagnetic field conversion. The former implies generation of high power (that is equal to high-voltage and high-current) pulses [1]. The latter means use of an electron beam moving in vacuum to produce intense radiation [2]: high electron beam current or high current density combined with large cross-section of interaction area are required [3-6].
Explosive pulsed power [7-9] could contribute to both of the above being capable to store and deliver much higher specific energy as compared to either dielectrics or magnetics and providing high flexibility for matching with a load by the use of a pulse forming network.
The paper is organized as follows. Introduction comprises brief review of helical flux compression generators (FCGs). An approach to develop FCG and pulse forming network capable to drive vacuum tube with the required power is presented in section 1. Experimental testing of the proposed approach is described in section 2. Section 3 dwells on promises of optimization of helical FCG output. A particular emphasis is accorded to FCG with initiation from two ends [10], which enables significant increase in power supplied to the load. Concluding remarks discuss parameters achievable to drive vacuum tube from explosive pulsed power source.

[1] Gennady A. Mesyats, Pulsed Power, Springer New York, NY (2004) 568 p., doi: 10.1007/b116932.
[2] James Benford, John A. Swegle, Edl Schamiloglu, High Power Microwaves, 3rd Edition, CRC Press, (2015) 470p.
[3] V.G. Baryshevsky, High Power Microwave and Optical Volume Free Electron Lasers (VFELs), arXiv:1211.4769.
[4] V.G. Baryshevsky, Klystron type X-ray crystal-based Volume Free Electron Laser (XVFEL), arXiv:2401.05161.
[5] V.G. Baryshevsky, A.A. Gurinovich, Photonic crystal-based compact high-power, vacuum electronic devices, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 4 (2019) 044702.
[6] V.G. Baryshevsky, A.A. Gurinovich, Hybrid systems with virtual cathode for high power microwaves generation, arXiv:0903.0300.
[7] A.D. Sakharov, Magnetoimplosive generators, Sov. Phys. Usp. 9 (1966) 294-299.
[8] B.E. Grinevich, V.A. Demidov, A.V. Ivanovsky and V.D. Selemir, Explosive magnetic generators and their application in scientific experiments, Sov. Phys. Usp. 54 (2011) p. 403 – 408.
[9] Andreas A. Neuber, Explosively Driven Pulsed Power: Helical Magnetic Flux Compression Generators (Power Systems), Springer (2005) 292p.
[10] S. Anishchenko, P. Bogdanovich, A. Gurinovich, D. Leonenko, Half-and-half HFCG with double-end initiation, arXiv:2205.15047.
 

pulsed power,flux compression generator,vacuum tube