Interferometric Study of Pinch Phase in Plasma-Focus Discharge at the Time of Neutron Production

Author

Kubes, Pavel ; Paduch, Marian ; Pisarczyk, Tadeusz ; Scholz, Marek ; Chodukowski, Tomasz ; Klir, Daniel ; Kravarik, Jozef ; Rezac, Karel ; Ivanova-Stanik, Irena ; Karpinski, Leslaw ; Tomaszewski, Krzysztof ; Zieliñska, Ewa

Author_Institution

Czech Tech. Univ. in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Volume

37

Issue

11

fYear

2009

Firstpage

2191

Lastpage

2196

Abstract

A plasma column generated in the PF-1000 device working in deuterium gas at a current level of 1 MA was investigated with interferometric diagnostics and scintillation detectors. The beam of diagnostic laser of 527-nm wavelength was optically split into 16 beams with a time delay in the range from 0 to 220 ns. This diagnostic tool makes possible the imaging of the evolution of pinch geometry, the axial and radial distributions of plasma density in the column at the stagnation phase, and their comparison with the evolution of X-ray and neutron production. The evolution of dense structure is described with respect to its importance for fusion processes.

Keywords

deuterium; neutron production; pinch effect; plasma X-ray sources; plasma density; plasma diagnostics; plasma focus; D₂; PF-1000 device; X-ray production; current 1 MA; dense structure; deuterium gas; interferometric diagnostics; neutron production; pinch geometry; pinch phase; plasma column; plasma density axial distribution; plasma density radial distribution; plasma-focus discharge; scintillation detectors; time 0 ns to 220 ns; wavelength 527 nm; Neutron production; plasma diagnostics; plasma focus (PF);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2009.2030576

Filename

5291788