Deuterium gas-puff Z-pinch implosions on the Z accelerator

• Published in: Physics of plasmas 2007-05, Vol.14 (5), p.056309-056309-7
• Main Authors: Coverdale, C. A., Deeney, C., Velikovich, A. L., Davis, J., Clark, R. W., Chong, Y. K., Chittenden, J., Chantrenne, S., Ruiz, C. L., Cooper, G. W., Nelson, A. J., Franklin, J., LePell, P. D., Apruzese, J. P., Levine, J., Banister, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; ACCELERATORS; ARGON; CHLORINE; COMPRESSION; DEUTERIUM; DOPED MATERIALS; IMPLOSIONS; MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS; MEV RANGE; NEUTRONS; PLASMA; PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS; PLASMA SIMULATION; X RADIATION; X-RAY SOURCES
• ISSN: 1070-664X; 1089-7674
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2710207

Experiments on the Z accelerator with deuterium gas-puff implosions have produced up to 3.7 × 10 13 ( ± 20 % ) neutrons at 2.34 MeV ( ± 0.10 MeV ) . Although the mechanism for generating these neutrons was not definitively identified, this neutron output is 100 times more than previously observed from neutron-producing experiments at Z. Dopant gases in the deuterium (argon and chlorine) were used to study implosion characteristics and stagnated plasma conditions through x-ray yield measurements and spectroscopy. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations have suggested that the dopants improved the neutron output through better plasma compression, which has been studied in experiments increasing the dopant fraction. Scaling these experiments, and additional MHD calculations, suggest that ∼ 5 × 10 14 deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutrons could be generated at the 26 - MA refurbished Z facility.