Gas-puff z-pinch plasmas driven by inductive energy storage pulsed power generator

ASO-II, an inductive energy storage pulsed power generator developed at Kumamoto University, is used as a power source for gas-puff z-pinch plasmas. The plasma characteristics are compared with those generated by a fast capacitive bank that supplies the same energy. Also, solid and mesh cathode electrodes are compared with respect to the pinch behavior. Using ASO-II in the case of solid cathode electrode, the plasma pinches uniformly and the spatial stability of hot spots is improved. The intensity of the soft X-rays increases a little. The behavior of the plasma pinch and the spatial stability of hot spots are improved by using the mesh cathode electrode, and the differences of experimental results between the fast bank and ASO-II become small.