Study on the gas shell from gas puff nozzle for z-pinch

Summary form only given, as follows. The gas puff nozzles for two neon gas-puff z-pinches were designed and tested. The first z-pinch is driven by a high current fast pulsed-power generator (1.5 MA, 80 ns) and the second one by a low current slow generator (240 kA, 2 /spl mu/s). In order to maximize the X-radiation from the z-pinch the initial radius and line mass density of the gas shell was optimized for the particular pulsed-power generator. A miniature ionization gauge was designed and constructed. With this specially designed gauge the density profiles of the puffed gas shells were measured. The density profiles were also obtained by numerical simulation. The experimental and calculated density profiles were compared and the line mass density was deduced. It was found that the calculated implosion time from 0D-model (slug-model) with the deduced line mass density agrees well with that observed in the experiment. Two fast responding pressure probes were used in the experiments on the supersonic gas shell. One probe is installed at a position just before the throat of the nozzle and another at the exit of the nozzle. The two probes method yields local Mach number of 4 for the puffed gas shell.