Neon gas puff implosions on a high-current microsecond generator with and without a plasma opening switch

Implosions of 2.5-cm-diam neon gas shells on a 1.2 μs quarter-period, 3 MA driver, FALCON, have produced no more than 7.6 kJ of kilovolt neon K-shell radiation. The incorporation of a plasma opening switch produces faster current pulses: up to 1.8 MA in 190 ns. With the higher rate of rise of curren...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 1992-08, Vol.72 (4), p.1297-1305
Main Authors: DEENEY, C, LEPELL, P. D, WHITNEY, K. G, ROTH, I, NASH, T, WARREN, L, PRASAD, R. R, MCDONALD, C, CHILDERS, F. K, SINCERNY, P, COULTER, M. C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exact sciences and technology
Physics
Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges
Physics of plasmas and electric discharges
Plasma devices
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Summary:Implosions of 2.5-cm-diam neon gas shells on a 1.2 μs quarter-period, 3 MA driver, FALCON, have produced no more than 7.6 kJ of kilovolt neon K-shell radiation. The incorporation of a plasma opening switch produces faster current pulses: up to 1.8 MA in 190 ns. With the higher rate of rise of current, neon gas puffs have produced up to 13.5 kJ of kilovolt K-shell radiation. Numerical calculations indicate that this increase in radiation is due to the achievement of a higher kinetic energy per ion at higher current levels. Spectroscopic measurements confirm that a significant fraction of the plasma is heated into the K-shell ionization states and that the faster current pulses increase this fraction up to 40%.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.351736