ENERGY CONCENTRATION IN A HIGH-CURRENT GAS-DISCHARGE - EXPERIMENTS ONPLASMA-FOCUS-PRODUCED DENSE-PLASMA SPHEROMAK

Experimental results are presented which verify the possibility, forme rly predicted,(1) of the formation of a closed, spheromak-like magneti c configuration (SLMC) in a plasma focus discharge. The model is based on the self-generated transformation of a toroidal (i.e. azimuthal) f ield into a poloidal one. At its final stage, the SLMC takes the form of a squeezed spheromak, which includes a combined Z-curly theta-pinch at its major axis, exhibiting a power density several orders of magni tude larger than that measured experimentally on a force-free flux-con server-confined spheromak formed by helicity injection. The results su ggest a possibility of further concentrating the plasma power density by means of compressing the SLMC-trapped plasma by the residual magnet ic field.