Comparison of a copper foil to copper wire-array z-pinch implosion on Z
Abstract
We have imploded the first foil load on the accelerator Z, and compared its implosion characteristics to a wire-array load of the same mass. The copper foil load was 1.5-µm thick, 2-cm in diameter, and 1-cm long, weighing 8.3-mg/cm. The same mass wire-array consisted of 300 20-µm diameter copper wires. The peak radiated power for the wire-array implosion was 60-TW with a 10-ns width, the peak radiated power for the foil implosion was 30-TW with a 20-ns width. Both the foil and the wire-array were backlit with 1.865 keV photons when the load current was 8.8-MA, the time at which the loads are predicted by 0D modeling to begin to implode. The backlit images show the development of axial instability at the edge of the loads. The instability appears to be more pronounced for the foil load. The foil is observed to have a delayed implosion trajectory with respect to the wire array. For the 300-wire-array the wire cores are observed to expand to a 50-µm diameter at the time of 8.8-MA load current.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..DPPHP1102N