The “needle plasma”, a soft X Rays-initiated, gas embedded Z-pinch computational and experimental approaches

The production of dense and high temperature plasma using an intense REB injected into a high pressure gas is studied as a possible powerful source of soft X-Rays. A simple zero-dimensional computer model is used to solve a set of coupled differential equations describing the macroscopic plasma evolution. The results of this simple model are used to prepare two experiments. One first experimental setup is made of a 0.5 Ω coaxial line delivering a 40ns and 130kV pulse in a pressurized discharge chamber filled with 1–10 atm of Hydrogen or noble gas. The ionization of the gas is made by a narrow beam of soft X-Rays (8–13 nm) produced by a 1J Ruby laser focused under vacuum on a thick lead target. A second pulsed experiment will be made in the GAEL high power generator.