Recent measurements of soft X-ray emission from the DPF-1000U facility

Soft X-ray imaging is a very useful diagnostic technique in plasma-focus (PF) experiments. This paper reports results of four experimental sessions which were carried out at the DPF-1000U plasma-focus facility in 2013 and 2014. Over 200 discharges were performed at various experimental conditions. Measurements were taken using two X-ray pinhole cameras with a line of sight perpendicular to the z-axis, at different azimuthal angles (about 20° and 200°), and looking towards the centre of the PF-pinch column. They were equipped with diaphragms 1000 μm or 200–300 μm in diameter and coated with filters of 500 μm Al foil and 10 μm Be foil, respectively. Data on the neutron emission were collected with silver activation counters. For time-resolved measurements the use was made of four PIN diodes equipped with various filters and oriented towards the centre of the PF-column, in the direction perpendicular to the electrode axis. The recorded X-ray images revealed that when the additional gas-puff system is activated during the discharge, the stability of the discharge is improved. The data collected in these experiments confirmed the appearance of a filamentary fine structure in the PF discharges. In the past years the formation of such filaments was observed in many Z-pinch type experiments. Some of the recorded X-ray images have also revealed the appearance of the so-called hot-spots, i.e. small plasma regions of a very intense X-ray emission. Such a phenomenon was observed before in many PF experiments, e.g. in the MAJA-PF device, but it has not been investigated so far in a large facility such as the DPF-1000U. The time-resolved measurements provided the evidence of a time lapse between the X-ray emission from plasma regions located at different distance from the anode surface. The formation of distinct ‘hot-spots’ in different instants of the DPF-1000U discharge was also observed

Measurements of fast electron beams and soft X-ray emission from plasma-focus experiments

The paper reports results of the recent experimental studies of pulsed electron beams and soft X-rays in plasma-focus (PF) experiments carried out within a modified PF-360U facility at the NCBJ, Poland. Particular attention was focused on time-resolved measurements of the fast electron beams by means of two different magnetic analyzers, which could record electrons of energy ranging from about 41 keV to about 715 keV in several (6 or 8) measuring channels. For discharges performed with the pure deuterium filling, many strong electron signals were recorded in all the measuring channels. Those signals were well correlated with the first hard X-ray pulse detected by an external scintillation neutron-counter. In some of the analyzer channels, electron spikes (lasting about dozens of nanoseconds) and appearing in different instants after the current peculiarity (so-called current dip) were also recorded. For several discharges, fast ion beams, which were emitted along the z-axis and recorded with nuclear track detectors, were also investigated. Those measurements confirmed a multibeam character of the ion emission. The time-integrated soft X-ray images, which were taken side-on by means of a pinhole camera and sensitive X-ray films, showed the appearance of some filamentary structures and so-called hot spots. The application of small amounts of admixtures of different heavy noble gases, i.e. of argon (4.8% volumetric), krypton (1.6% volumetric), or xenon (0.8% volumetric), decreased intensity of the recorded electron beams, but increased intensity of the soft X-ray emission and showed more distinct and numerous hot spots. The recorded electron spikes have been explained as signals produced by quasi-mono-energetic microbeams emitted from tiny sources (probably plasma diodes), which can be formed near the observed hot spots