Magnetic field measurements on the self magnetic pinch diode at SNL using Zeeman splitting

Summary form only given. Self-Magnetic Pinch (SMP) diode experiments are in progress at the RITS-6 accelerator (5-11MV, 100-200kA) at Sandia National Laboratories. Te SMP diode is a flash x-ray radiography source with a radiation pulse length of 30-45 ns, dependent on the diode configuration. A hollow cathode emits electrons through an approximately 1cm vacuum A-K gap onto a high Z material. The high current (~150kA) compresses the electron beam to sub 3mm spot sizes¹. Visible spectra of diode plasma have been taken along the anode surface by both directly imaging onto a 0.3 m spectrometer and by using a lens coupled 11×1 fiber array, imaged onto a 0.15 m spectrometer. During the radiation pulse, the spectra contains carbon and aluminum lines, along with H-alpha. The H-alpha line has been used previously to characterize the plasma density as between 10¹⁷-10¹⁸ cm^-3, during the peak of the radiation pulse, dependent on distance from the axis of the diode.The goal of these experiments is to identify lines that can reliably characterize the magnetic field through Zeeman splitting. The 580.1 and 581.2 C IV lines in particular have a small Stark width and may be a good candidate to measure splitting in 10-20 T B-fields. Planned experiments include using a streak camera in conjunction with a 1 m, high resolution (0.1 Angstrom) spectrometer to determine the time evolution of the spectral lines. Recent results will be presented.