X-ray emission from the intereaction of a macroscopic particle with a dense plasma focus

A method is described for enhancing X-ray radiation by using a macroscopic particle to interact with a plasma focus. Assumptions made in predicting the relative amount of X-ray emission increase from the plasma particle interaction were: the particle essentially has the same physical dimensions throughout the lifetime of the focus because of hydrodynamic pressure compressing any ablated neutral cloud on the particle; and the electrons were thermalized to assume a Maxwellian distribution. The percentage of X-ray enhancement expected was calculated for various particle materials and sizes. A deep plasma focus device was designed and built with a current high enough to produce a plasma focus in a pressure range between 0.5 torr to 2 torr. The electron temperature of the focus is estimated to be 1.15 + or - 0.3 keV by measuring the X-ray emissions through beryllium foils of different thicknesses. This value is in good agreement with that of other focus experiments.