Recent activities on plasma focus experiment at IPR

Summary form only given. Plasma focus is important tool for plasma physicists for understanding dense magnetized plasma. Recently Plasma focus attracted the attention of the plasma research community for its use in pulsed radiation applications. The emitted neutrons can be applied to perform radiographs and substance analysis, taking advantage of the penetration and activation properties of neutron radiation. A 20 kJ (28.4 /spl mu/F, 30 kV) Mather type squirrel cage plasma focus is operational at our institute. Electrodes of this device are made of stainless steel with glass as insulator. The focus is housed in a chamber filled with hydrogen or deuterium gas. The maximum neutron yield obtained so far is 10/sup 9/ per discharge, detected by using bubble detector. Time resolved neutron and X-ray emission was measured by a time of flight detector. Emission of microwaves from Plasma focus is the least studied subject worldwide. We are planning to use microwave detectors together with other diagnostics to study microwave emission from plasma focus.