ANALYSIS OF X-RAY-SPECTRA OBTAINED IN FOAM Z-PINCH EXPERIMENTS

Foam Z-pinch experiments have recently been performed on SATURN to stu dy issues associated with the initiation, acceleration, and stagnation phases of the pinch. Time-integrated x-ray crystal spectra have been recorded from experiments with 5 mg/cc Si aerogel loads and 10 mg/cc a gar loads. In this article, we describe results from collisional-radia tive equilibrium calculations performed to analyze the Si, Na, and S K -shell emission observed in the spectra. Particular attention is paid to density and opacity effects on intensity ratios involving He-alpha, He intercombination, and Li-like satellite lines. (C) 1997 American I nstitute of Physics.