Correlation of the time history of argon Z-pinch K-shell emission and initial gas distribution

Summary form only given, as follows. The success of recent Z-pinch wire-array experiments on the Saturn and Z machines testifies to the importance of initial conditions to quality implosions. We report on the correlation of the K-shell emission of a gas puff load with the initial gas distribution. Weber and Fulghum (1997) demonstrated the use of a precision interferometer to determine the gas density profiles of Z-pinch gas puff nozzles. On recent Double Eagle experiments, we have made use of a one dimensional array of X-ray-sensitive Si diodes to measure the time history of argon K-shell emission as a function of distance across the A-K gap of the pinch. We present data from this "zipper" array and discuss the correlation of the zipper data with the measured initial gas distribution.