Published August 2006 | Version v1
Journal article

Implosion dynamics and radiative characteristics of a high yield structured gas puff load

  • 1. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87117 (United States)
  • 2. Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375 (United States)
  • 3. L-3 Communications/Pulse Sciences, San Leandro, California 94577 (United States)

Description

A large diameter gas puff nozzle, designed to produce a radial mass profile with a substantial fraction of the injected mass on the axis, has demonstrated an increase in K shell yield by nearly a factor of 2, to 21 kJ, in an argon Z pinch at 3.5 MA peak current and 205 ns implosion time [H. Sze, J. Banister, B. H. Failor, J. S. Levine, N. Qi, A. L. Velikovich, J. Davis, D. Lojewski, and P. Sincerny, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 105001 (2005)] and 80 kJ at 6 MA and 227 ns implosion time. The initial gas distribution produced by this nozzle has been determined and related to measured plasma dynamics during the implosion run-in phase. The role of two gas shells and the center jet are elucidated by the inclusion of a tracer element sequentially into each of the three independent plenums and by evacuating each plenum. The implosion dynamics and radiative characteristics of the Z pinches are presented

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physics of Plasmas
Journal Volume
13
Journal Issue
8
Journal Page Range
p. 082702-082702.11
ISSN
1070-664X
CODEN
PHPAEN

INIS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2006 American Institute of Physics