Experimental Study of the Dynamics of Large- and Small-Scale Structures in the Plasma Column of Wire Array Z-Pinches

Author

Ivanov, V.V. ; Sotnikov, Vladimir I. ; Sarkisov, Gennady ; Astanovitskiy, A.L. ; Laca, P.J. ; Cowan, T.E. ; Jones, Brent ; Deeney, Christopher ; Oliver, Bryan V. ; Mehlhorn, Thomas A. ; Leboeuf, Jean-Noel G.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Nevada, Reno

Volume

35

Issue

4

fYear

2007

Firstpage

1170

Lastpage

1177

Abstract

The dynamics of large- and small-scale plasma structures is investigated in the precursor of 1-MA wire array Z-pinches by laser probing diagnostics. It is found that plasma streams from the wires induce density perturbations in the precursor. Small-scale perturbations and large-scale cells arise in the nonlinear stage before implosion. The spatial and temporal scales of the observed structures are in agreement with the theoretical investigation for current-driven excitation of electromagnetic flute modes.

Keywords

Z pinch; flute instability; plasma density; plasma diagnostics; plasma turbulence; current driven flute mode excitation; electromagnetic flute modes; large scale plasma column structures; laser probing diagnostics; plasma column dynamics; plasma density perturbations; plasma streams; small scale plasma column structures; wire array Z pinches; Laboratories; Laser theory; Optical arrays; Physics; Plasma confinement; Plasma density; Plasma diagnostics; Plasma sources; Plasma x-ray sources; Wire; Flute modes; plasma turbulence; wire array $Z$-pinches;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2007.902130

Filename

4287048