Spectroscopic investigation of the dynamics of a gas-puff Z-pinch

Summary form only given. The dynamics of the ionization and the implosion of a plasma shell in a gas-puff Z-pinch experiment have been investigated using intensities and spectral profiles of emission lines in the UV-visible region (2000-8000 /spl Aring/). A 1.3-m spectrograph coupled to a fast UV streak camera is used to obtain the time-dependent spectral profiles and absolute intensities of different lines in a single discharge, with 1 ns temporal and 0.06 /spl Aring/ spectral resolutions. Strong line emission from various ions up to the fifth ionization state is observed during the pinch. Certain line profiles are found to be dominated by the Doppler shift of the imploding shell and the spread in the radial velocity distributions. The radial velocities of CII and OII are found to be less than 2 cm//spl mu/s, while higher charge state ions reach 8 cm//spl mu/s. An ionization wave is observed on the inner side of the plasma shell moving much faster than the local particles.