Author :
Sanford, T.W.L. ; Allshouse, G.O. ; Marder, B.M. ; Nash, T.J. ; Mock, R.C. ; Douglas, M.R. ; Spielman, R.B. ; Seamen, J.F. ; McGurn, J.S. ; Jobe, D. ; Gilliland, T.L. ; Vargas, M. ; Struve, Kenneth W. ; Stygar, William A. ; Hammer, J.H. ; De Groot, J.S. ;
Author_Institution :
Sandia National Laboratories, P. O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185 USA
Abstract :
A systematic experimental study of annular aluminum-wire z-pinches on the Saturn accelerator shows that, for the first time, the measured spatial characteristics and x-ray powers can approach those of two-dimensional, radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations when large numbers of wires are used. Calculations show that the implosion begins to transition from that of individual plasma wires to that of a continuous plasma shell, when the circumferential gap between wires in the array is reduced below 1.4 + 1.3/−0.7 mm. This calculated gap coincides with the measured transition of 1.4 ±0.4 mm between the observed regimes of slow and rapid improvement in power output with decreasing gap. In the plasma-shell regime, x-ray powers in excess of a factor of three over that generated in the plasma-wire region are measured.
