Preliminary experiments of multi-wire Z-pinch on plasma opening switch

Tungsten wire array Z-pinch experiments performed on a 100 kA, 100 ns rise-time POS-based inductive generator were reported. The array consisted of 2 or 4 tungsten wires of 7 μm in diameter. Plasma luminescence pictures with 0.05 mm/ns resolution were taken by a fast streak camera. It turns our that 67%-78% of the 105 kA conduction current has been transferred from POS to the wire array loads, and the rise time of load current is 84-110 ns. The corona plasma formation, implosion and expansion after electrically exploding of tungsten wires were observed distinctly. (authors)