Ns. Edison et al., ENHANCED Z PINCH USING AN EXTERNALLY APPLIED MAGNETIC-FIELD TO STABILIZE THE IMPLOSION OF AN ALUMINUM PLASMA-JET ONTO A COAXIAL WIRE, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 48(5), 1993, pp. 3893-3900
We have performed Z-pinch experiments in which an aluminum plasma jet
is imploded onto a coaxial, micrometer-diameter wire. X-ray pinhole im
ages and temporally resolved x-ray data indicate that energy is initia
lly supplied to the aluminum plasma jet, then transferred to the wire
at the peak compression of the implosion. When a dc magnetic field is
applied axially, growth of instabilities of the imploding aluminum pla
sma are reduced, and the production of x rays from the embedded wire i
s enhanced. These experiments demonstrate that an imploding plasma lin
er efficiently couples energy from a pulsed power generator into a mic
rometer-sized-diameter channel.