Plasma dynamics and hotspots studies from a plasma focus device

The dynamics of the plasma (Ne, Ar) evolution and hotspots formation has been studied by a PIN detector, a time-resolved and time-integrated MCP soft X-ray pinhole camera, fast optical camera systems and a N2-laser interferometry. Fast streak and framing photos reveal two well-defined compressions with ∼ 60 ns time seperation during the plasma evolution. Cosequently the soft X-ray emission which was monitored by MCP camera and PIN detector is observed to be mainly coming from the first compression. For both Ne and Ar gases, maximum electron densities of > 5×10¹⁹ cm⁻³ are obtained ∼ 10 ns after the onset of the X-ray emission. The maximum electron densities of the hot spots estimated from the Bennet´s relation are about 10²¹ cm⁻³ for Argon plasma.