Direct x-ray streak camera imaging of multi-wire x-pinches

Summary form only given. X-pinches are produced by driving a high current through two, four, or more thin wires that cross and touch in the middle of the load region of a pulsed power generator. An X pinch produces a high temperature and high density plasma in the vicinity of the cross point that generates one or a few bursts of soft X-ray emission. The experiments to be discussed have been carried out at the Cornell COBRA facility with a peak current of 1 MA and a rise time of 100 ns. Four-wire X pinches were placed in the return current positions of COBRA and the duration of the X-ray burst emitted from the central cross point region of the X-pinch during implosion was observed using an X-ray streak camera in direct-view mode. Various filters and objects to be imaged placed in front of the entrance slit of the streak camera enable us to obtain source size and spectral information on the incoming radiation and to measure the duration of the radiation as a function of photon energy. The results of these experiments will be discussed