The effect of wire material on plasma formation in wire array Z-pinches

Summary form only given. Plasma formation in wire array Z-pinches was studied in experiments with 16-mm diameter arrays of between 8 and 64 aluminium, tungsten or titanium wires, imploded in 200 to 260 ns by a 1.4 MA current pulse. Side-on (r-z plane) diagnostics included laser probing with interferometer, schlieren and shadow channels, gated 4-frame soft X-ray imaging and radial and axial optical streak photography. End-on (r-/spl theta/ plane) laser probing gave information about the azimuthal structure of the implosion. The X-ray radiation at stagnation and during the implosion phase was measured with filtered PCD and XRD detectors. A comparison of plasma formation for different wire material will be presented, including measurements of the expansion velocities of the coronal plasma in the radial and azimuthal directions. The wavelength of instabilities and the parameters of the precursor pinch.