Energy Diagnostics of Pulsed Powerful Hard X-Ray Sources Based on Plasma Focus Discharges

Two plasma focus devices were studied as pulsed sources of high-energy X-ray radiation. High-sensitivity, fast-response commercial radiographic film was used as X-ray detector. The relevant characteristics of the pulsed polyenergetic radiation are discussed in terms of its effective mean attenuation with the penetration distance on different metallic samples. The effective characteristic thickness for each metal was obtained. These results were then used to assess the spectral properties of the radiation pulses for each device as function of charging pressure and voltage. From them, effective energies of the X-rays belonging to the 80 - 110 keV ranges were obtained.