X-ray emission from an X-pinch

Summary form only given. As a highly intensive and subnanosecond pulse X-ray point source, X-pinch plasma could find many potential applications. A pulsed power generator (500 kV, 400 kA, 100 ns) was constructed and used as the power source of an X-pinch. The X-pinch load was made of two 25-??m Mo wires. The temporal and spatial X-ray emission from the X-pinch was studied by using diamond photoconducting detectors and pinhole cameras. It was found that the X-ray pulse usually consists of two subnanosecond peaks with a time interval of about 0.5 ns, these two X-ray peaks are consistent with two point sources of X-ray recorded with pinhole camera. The total X-ray energy changes from shot to shot and is averaged to be 0.35 J for hv > 1.5 keV. The size of the X-ray point source is in the range from 100 ??m to 5 ??m , decreasing rapidly with the increase of the photon energy. The X-pinch was used as X-ray source for backlighting of the electrical explosion of single wire and for phase-contrast imaging of a mosquito.