GENERATION OF THE LINE RADIATION OF ARGON ADDED TO DT GAS IN ISKRA-5 EXPERIMENTS

The first experiments measuring the density of a compressed deuterium and tritium mixture in microtargets of indirect irradiation (x-ray tar gets) were performed at the Iskra-5 facility. The density was determin ed according to the broadening of the lines of hydrogen- and heliumlik e argon added to the DT gas as a diagnostics material. A series of thr ee experiments was performed with x-ray targets in which the central c apsule filled with a DT+Ar mixture over a range of shell thicknesses. In two of the experiments, argon emission spectra were recorded and th e density of the compressed gas was determined. For a microtarget appr oximately 280 mu m in diameter with a wall approximately 7 mu m thick, an analysis of the experimental mm results yielded an estimated densi ty in the compressed gas of similar to 1 g/ cm(3). Gas-dynamic calcula tions using the SNDA (spectral nonequilibrium diffusion with absorptio n) program show that argon emission takes place just after reaching ma ximum temperature, but much sooner than maximum compression. The resul ts of a calculation for an experiment with low relative Ar concentrati on are in overall agreement with the experimental data. Additional inv estigations are needed to interpret experiments at a relatively high c oncentration. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(98)0 0609-X].