Study of micro-pinches in wire-array Z pinches

Bright and hot areas with a high plasma density and temperature are observed in all kinds of Z pinches. We studied bright radiating spots produced by micro-pinches in cylindrical and planar wire-arrays at the 1 MA Zebra pulsed power generator using an x-ray streak camera synchronized with laser diag...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2013-11, Vol.20 (11)
Main Authors: Ivanov, V. V., Papp, D., Anderson, A. A., Talbot, B. R., Astanovitskiy, A. L., Nalajala, V., Dmitriev, O., Chittenden, J. P., Niasse, N., Pikuz, S. A., Shelkovenko, T. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALUMINIUM
Aluminum
Arrays
Bright spots
Bursts
Collapse
CORRELATIONS
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
HOT PLASMA
Hot spots
ION TEMPERATURE
KEV RANGE
Laser diagnostics
LINEAR Z PINCH DEVICES
Neck
Pinhole cameras
Pinholes
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
Plasma physics
Plasmas
SOFT X RADIATION
Soft x rays
Streak
STREAK CAMERAS
Time synchronization
Wire
WIRES
X ray spectra
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY
X-rays
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Summary:Bright and hot areas with a high plasma density and temperature are observed in all kinds of Z pinches. We studied bright radiating spots produced by micro-pinches in cylindrical and planar wire-arrays at the 1 MA Zebra pulsed power generator using an x-ray streak camera synchronized with laser diagnostics, x-ray time-gated pinhole camera, and spectroscopy. Hot spots with extremely dense and relatively hot plasma arise during the collapse of the micro-pinches. These hot spots radiate a continuum spectrum with energy >2.5 keV. Typical micro-pinches in Al wire arrays generate x-ray bursts with durations of 0.4–1 ns in the soft x-ray range and 0.1–0.4 ns in the keV range. UV two-frame shadowgraphy shows spatial correlation of hot spots with the collapse and explosion of micro-pinches. Micro-pinches typically occur at the necks of the Z pinch, but can demonstrate a variety of parameters and different dynamics. An analysis of x-ray streak images shows that micro-pinches can generate >20% of the x-ray energy in some types of wire-array Z pinches.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.4831778