J.W. Banister

Deuterium gas-puff Z-pinch implosions on the Z acceleratora)

Experiments on the Z accelerator with deuterium gas-puff implosions have produced up to 3.7×1013 (±20%) neutrons at 2.34MeV (±0.10MeV). Although the mechanism for generating these neutrons was not definitively identified, this neutron output is 100 times more than previously observed from neutron-producing experiments at Z. Dopant gases in the deuterium (argon and chlorine) were used to study implosion characteristics and stagnated plasma conditions through x-ray yield measurements and spectroscopy. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations have suggested that the dopants improved the neutron output through better plasma compression, which has been studied in experiments increasing the dopant fraction. Scaling these experiments, and additional MHD calculations, suggest that ∼5×1014 deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutrons could be generated at the 26-MA refurbished Z facility.

Implosion dynamics and radiative characteristics of a high yield structured gas puff load

A large diameter gas puff nozzle, designed to produce a radial mass profile with a substantial fraction of the injected mass on the axis, has demonstrated an increase in K shell yield by nearly a factor of 2, to 21kJ, in an argon Z pinch at 3.5MA peak current and 205ns implosion time [H. Sze, J. Banister, B. H. Failor, J. S. Levine, N. Qi, A. L. Velikovich, J. Davis, D. Lojewski, and P. Sincerny, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 105001 (2005)] and 80kJ at 6MA and 227ns implosion time. The initial gas distribution produced by this nozzle has been determined and related to measured plasma dynamics during the implosion run-in phase. The role of two gas shells and the center jet are elucidated by the inclusion of a tracer element sequentially into each of the three independent plenums and by evacuating each plenum. The implosion dynamics and radiative characteristics of the Z pinches are presented.

Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability mitigation and efficient radiation production in gas puff Z-pinch implosions

Large radius Z-pinches are inherently susceptible to the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability because of their relatively long acceleration path. This has been reflected in a significant reduction of the argon K-shell yield as was observed when the diameter of the load was increased from 2.5to>4cm. Recently, an approach was demonstrated to overcome the challenge with a structured gas puff load that mitigates the RT instability, enhances the energy coupling, and leads to a high compression, high yield Z-pinch. The novel load consists of a “pusher,” outer region plasma that carries the current and couples energy from the driver, a “stabilizer,” inner region plasma that mitigates the RT growth, and a “radiator,” high-density center jet plasma that is heated and compressed to radiate. In 3.5-MA, 200-ns, 12-cm initial diameter implosions, the Ar K-shell yield has increased by a factor of 2, to 21kJ, matching the yields obtained on the same accelerator with 100-ns, 2.5-cm-diam implosions. Further tests of ...

Two-dimensional gas density and velocity distributions of a 12-cm-diameter, triple-nozzle argon Z-pinch load

We have developed a 12-cm-diameter Ar gas Z-pinch load, which produces two annular gas shells and a center gas jet. The two-dimensional (2-D) gas density profiles of the load, in r-/spl theta/ and r-z planes, were measured with submillimeter spatial resolutions using the planar-laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) method, for conditions used in Z-pinch experiments. Due to interactions between the shells, the net gas density profile differs from the superposition of the individual shell profiles. Narrow density peaks are observed both at smaller and larger radii than the radius where the shells come in contact with each other. Two-dimensional flow velocity distributions are determined from the displacements between the fluorescence and later time phosphorescence images. The measured stream velocities of argon gas puffs are 650 /spl plusmn/ 20 m/s, higher than the ideal gas velocity due to the formation of clusters in the supersonic gas flow. Indeed, clusters were observed in earlier Rayleigh scattering experiments. The gas measurements of the initial phase using the PLIF will be combined with other density measurements of the implosion and pinch phases to better understand the implosion dynamics and to provide initial conditions for simulation codes.

One-and two-dimensional modeling of argon K-shell emission from gas-puff Z-pinch plasmas

In this paper, a theoretical model is described and demonstrated that serves as a useful tool for understanding K-shell radiating Z-pinch plasma behavior. Such understanding requires a self-consistent solution to the complete nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium kinetics and radiation transport in order to realistically model opacity effects and the high-temperature state of the plasma. For this purpose, we have incorporated into the MACH2 two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code [R. E. Peterkin et al., J. Comput. Phys. 140, 148 (1998)] an equation of state, called the tabular collisional radiative equilibrium (TCRE) model [J. W. Thornhill et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 3480 (2001)], that provides reasonable approximations to the plasma’s opacity state. MACH2 with TCRE is applied toward analyzing the multidimensional implosion behavior that occurred in Decade Quad (DQ) [D. Price et al., Proceedings of the 12th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Monterey, CA, edited by C. Stallings and H. Kirbie (IEEE, New York, ...

Long implosion time (240 ns) Z-pinch experiments with a large diameter (12 cm) double-shell nozzle

Recently, an 8 cm diameter double-shell nozzle has produced argon Z pinches with high K-shell yields with implosion time of 210 ns. To produce even longer implosion time Z pinches for facilities such as Decade Quad [D. Price, et al., “Electrical and Mechanical Design of the Decade Quad in PRS Mode,” in Proceedings of the 12th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Monterey, CA, edited by C. Stallings and H. Kirbie (IEEE, New York, 1999), p. 489] (9 MA short circuit current at 300 ns), a larger nozzle (12 cm outer diameter) was designed and fabricated. During initial testing on Double-EAGLE [P. Sincerny et al., Proceedings of the 5th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Arlington, VA, edited by M. F. Rose and P. J. Turchi (IEEE, New York, 1985), p. 151], 9 kJ of argon K-shell radiation in a 6 ns full width at half maximum pulse was produced with a 240 ns implosion. The initial gas distributions produced by various nozzle configurations have been measured and their impact on the final radiative characteristics of the pinch...

Measurement and Analysis of Continuum Radiation From a Large-Diameter Long Implosion Time Argon Gas Puff

Time-resolved measurements of the absolute free-bound (FB) continuum spectrum emitted from a 12-cm-diameter argon gas-puff Z-pinch driven at ~6-MA peak current with 220- to 260-ns implosion times are reported. A crystal spectrometer is used with silicon diode detectors to provide kiloelectronvolt spectral resolution. The energy and absolute-intensity calibration procedures for the spectrometer are described. The slope of the FB continuum is well represented by a decaying exponential spectrum with a single electron temperature from which spatially averaged, time-resolved (Te(t)), and time-integrated (langTerang) electron temperatures are inferred. An expression for the absolute FB continuum, which takes into account recombination onto bare as well as H-like species, is presented and used to infer time-integrated spatially averaged ion densities langnirang. The values of langTerang and langnirang are in general agreement with the values of these quantities obtained by using the conventional K-shell line-ratio method. Values of Te(t) peak on the rise of the continuum radiation pulse and gradually decrease during the pulse. The fraction of the total energy radiated in the K-shell that resides in the FB continuum is 6%-10%, and this fraction increases with langnirang. Calculated continuum spectra are in agreement with measured spectra

Z

A series of nickel z pinch experiments was conducted at 18 MA current on the Z accelerator producing up to 13 kJ of K-shell radiation at 7.8 keV and above. Double-shell wire arrays were used, with the diameter of the outer array of the nested structure varied from 55 to 70 mm. By using Cr and Mn dopants in conjunction with a streak spectrograph, the interaction of the outer and inner array could be investigated. The radiation from the outer array E array started slightly after the inner array and lasted longer, producing comparable energy per atom at lower power. This indicates that the arrays were well mixed for most of the radiation pulse, in contrast to the observed behavior of a double-shell gas puff.

-Pinch at 6 MA

Recently, a new approach for efficiently generating K-shell x-rays in large-diameter, long-implosion time, structured argon gas Z-pinches has been demonstrated based on a “pusher-stabilizer-radiator” model. In this paper, direct observations of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability mitigation of a 12-cm diameter, 200-ns implosion time argon Z-pinch using a laser shearing interferometer (LSI) and a laser wavefront analyzer (LWA) are presented. Using a zero-dimensional snowplow model, the imploding plasma trajectories are calculated with the driver current waveforms and the initial mass distributions measured using the planar laser induced fluorescence method. From the LSI and LWA images, the plasma density and trajectory during the implosion are measured. The measured trajectory agrees with the snowplow calculations. The suppression of hydromagnetic instabilities in the “pusher-stabilizer-radiator” structured loads, leading to a high-compression ratio, high-yield Z-pinch, is discussed. For comparison, the LSI an...

K-shell radiation from nickel wire arrays at 18 MA

Structured 12-cm-diam Ar gas-puff loads have recently produced Z-pinch implosions with reduced Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth and increased K-shell x-ray yield [H. Sze, J. Banister, B. H. Failor, J. S. Levine, N. Qi, A. L. Velikovich, J. Davis, D. Lojewski, and P. Sincerny, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 105001 (2005)]. To better understand the dynamics of these loads, we have measured the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) emission resolved radially, spectrally, and axially. Radial measurements indicated a compressed diameter of ≈3mm, consistent with the observed load inductance change and an imploded-mass consisting of a ≈1.5-mm-diam, hot, K-shell-emitting core and a cooler surrounding blanket. Spectral measurements indicate that, if the load is insufficiently heated, then radiation from the core will rapidly photoheat the outer blanket, producing a strong increase in XUV emission. Also, adding a massive center jet (⩾20% of load mass) increases the rise and fall times of the XUV emission to ⩾40ns, consistent with a mo...