Time correlation of plasma focus X-ray emission in various energy ranges

Summary form only given, as follows. The correlation between the onset times of the X-ray emissions in three energy ranges has been studied on a plasma focus device (11 kJ at 16 kV) with various gas fillings. Soft X-ray line emission at about 1 keV photon energy (H- and He-like neon ion resonance lines) was detected by means of a crystal spectrometer. Medium energy X-ray emission (5-30 keV) was measured by filtered PIN diodes. Hard X-rays (energy above 100 keV) were detected by scintillator-photomultiplier detectors. In most of the measurements all detection devices were placed in a plane perpendicular to the electrode axis viewing a region at about 1 cm in front of the central electrode. The visible light emission from the collapsing plasma sheath was taken as the time reference in the correlation studies. It was found that the onset times of the plasma focus X-ray emission in the energy ranges specified above were highly correlated (correlation coefficients close to unity were found). This was not the case for the duration and intensity of the same emissions.