ISSN:
1089-7674
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
High wire number, 25-mm-diameter tungsten wire arrays have been imploded on the 8-MA Saturn generator [R. B. Spielman et al., AIP Conference Proceeding 195, 3 (American Institute of Physics, Woodbury, NY 1989)], operating in a long-pulse mode. By varying the mass of the arrays from 710 to 6140 μg/cm, implosion times of 130–250 ns have been obtained with implosion velocities of 50–25 cm/μs, respectively. These Z-pinch implosions produced plasmas with millimeter diameters that radiated 600–800 kJ of x-rays, with powers of 20–49 TW; the corresponding pulsewidths were 19–7.5 ns, with risetimes ranging from 6.5 to 4.0 ns. These powers and pulsewidths are similar to those achieved with 50-ns implosion times on Saturn. Two-dimensional, radiation-magnetohydrodynamic calculations indicate that the imploding shells in these long implosion time experiments are comparable in width to those in the short-pulse cases. This can be due to lower initial perturbations. A heuristic wire array model suggests that the reduced perturbations, in the long-pulse cases, may be due to the individual wire merger occurring well before the acceleration of the shell. The experiments and modeling suggest that 150–200 ns implosion time Z-pinches could be employed for high-power, x-ray source applications. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.873617
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