Experimental Measurements of X-Ray Driven Plasma Ablation From Solid Density Silicon Targets

In this poster we present preliminary observations of fast plasma outflows which are generated when prompt X-Ray bursts impinge upon silicon targets. The X-Ray bursts are produced by the implosion of wire array Z-Pinches on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility ($1.4 \; \mathrm{MA}$ peak-current, $240 \; \mathrm{ns}$ rise-time). The X-Rays emitted by the arrays have spectra which are dominated by continua (color-temperature $\sim 150 \; \mathrm{eV}$), and persist for long timescales ($\sim 30 \; \mathrm{ns}$). The plasma outflows are diagnosed with a state of the art suite of spatially and temporally resolved diagnostics including interferometry, optical Thomson scattering, and fast frame optical self-emission imaging. They are observed to have a uniform structure, and a characteristic velocity . The plasmas expand into strong magnetic fields ($B \sim 10 \; \mathrm{T}$), generated by the pulsed-power drive. The well-defined spatial structure of the plasma outflows mean that the setup represents a promising testbed for radiation-hydrodynamics problems. The experiments could also be tuned to facilitate the study of extended MHD phenomena, particularly the Nernst effect.