Measurements of X-rays produced by a neon dense plasma focus

Summary form only given. X-ray spectra produced by a neon dense plasma focus (DPF) have been studied. The discharge is produced by a /spl les/4 kJ, /spl les/12 kV, capacitor bank circuit, which has a fixed inductance of 12 nH and drives /spl les/450 kA currents into the DPF load, with /spl ap/1.1 /spl mu/s rise-times. X-rays are produced when a dense pinch of neon is formed along the axis of the DPF electrodes. A time-integrated absolutely calibrated X-ray crystal spectrometer and a new time-resolved X-ray crystal spectrometer were used to measure the spectrum of the DPF source. The time-resolved instrument uses an array of eight p-i-n diodes to capture eight narrow (/spl ap/0.1 /spl Aring/) spectral features as a continuous function of time.