Study on neutron radiation of dense plasma focus with different electrodes design

Summary form only given, as follows. The performance of the plasma focus is considered from design perspectives to develop powerful neutron radiation sources. On the basis of this idea, we have developed two different plasma focus devices (i.e., PF-1 and PF-2) operating in deuterium gas with high performance for use as a neutron radiation source. The main difference of the two devices is the chamber configurations (cambered channel and closed outer electrode for the PF-1 compared to unbent channel and open outer electrode for the PF-2), although both of them are machined from oxygen-free copper. Both the PF-1 and PF-2 plasma focuses are driven by a 32 /spl mu/F capacitor bank through a gas spark switch with the peak current of 320 kA at 20 kV operating voltage. It appears that the PF-1 has more promising features with higher neutron yield and shorter duration of neutron pulse than PF-2.