Study of the rapid expansion rates of 25 /spl mu/m Ag, Au, and Cu wires driven by a current rise rate of 10/sup 10/ A/s for <100 ns

Summary form only given. Investigations of the expansion rates of exploding wires composed of many different materials are in progress using a pulsed current source with a rise rate of 10/sup 10/ A/s per wire. This range is similar to the prepulse phase of wire-array experiments on the Saturn and Z accelerators at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. Materials investigated include Ag, Al, Au, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ti, W, Zn, stainless steel, and others. Under identical pulser parameters, Ag, Au, and Cu wires exhibit among the fastest expansion rates and most uniform wire explosions of all the materials studied. The characteristics of Ag, Au, and Cu wire explosions will be discussed, including the effects of insulating coatings (Sinars et al., 2000). Comparisons will be made to materials from nearby columns on the periodic table, such as Ni and Pt.