Analysis of nested gas-puff Z-pinch implosion dynamics and radiation performance using measured initial-density distributions

Summary form only given. Gas distributions as functions of time, radius and distance from shell-on-shell nozzles used in MPI Double Eagle and SNL Saturn argon gas-puff experiments have been measured using high-sensitivity interferometry. Snow-plow implosions in ballistic-gas-flow-model (BM) fits to the measured density distributions and a two-level K-shell X-radiation model are used to analyze these experiments, and predict the performance of upcoming krypton shell-on-shell experiments on Z. Results demonstrate the utility of the models in the design of optimized gas-puff loads on these DTRA and DoE Z-pinch drivers.