Stagnation and Disruption of Wire Array Z-Pinch Radiation Sources on the Z Pulsed Power Generator

Author

Jones, Brent ; Ampleford, David J. ; Nielsen, Daniel S. ; Coverdale, Christine A. ; Jennings, Christopher A. ; Cuneo, Michael E.

Author_Institution

Sandia Nat. Labs., Albuquerque, NM, USA

Volume

39

Issue

11

fYear

2011

Firstpage

2416

Lastpage

2417

Abstract

Magnetic implosions provide extremely intense soft X-ray radiation on the Z accelerator. Shock heating at stagnation provides temperatures that are capable of producing K-shell radiation from stainless steel plasma. Time-gated multicolor X-ray pinhole imaging is used to study stagnation and disruption in fast Z pinches. Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities are observed to grow, following peak X-ray power until the Z-pinch column disrupts well after the main power pulse.

Keywords

Z pinch; explosions; plasma X-ray sources; plasma heating; plasma instability; plasma magnetohydrodynamics; plasma shock waves; stainless steel; K-shell radiation; Z accelerator; Z pulsed power generator; Z-pinch column; extremely intense soft X-ray radiation; fast Z pinches; magnetic implosions; magnetohydrodynamic instabilities; peak X-ray power; power pulse; shock heating; stainless steel plasma; time-gated multicolor X-ray pinhole imaging; wire array Z-pinch radiation source disruption; wire array Z-pinch radiation source stagnation; Arrays; Magnetohydrodynamics; Plasmas; Steel; Wire; X-ray imaging; Magnetohydrodynamics; X-ray detectors; multispectral imaging; plasma accelerators; plasma confinement; plasma diagnostics; plasma measurements; radiation imaging;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2011.2134873

Filename

5762366