X-ray Spectroscopic Studies of Multi-material Twisted Wire Hybrid X-pinches

The Hybrid X-Pinch (HXP) has been shown to be an excellent point source of X-ray emission on the XP pulsed-power machine for radiography, producing X-ray radiation with photon energies up to 4keV ¹. Spectroscopic analysis of x-pinch dynamics has shown L-shell line emission during the compression phase, followed by a ~10ps continuum burst, with many emission lines in the expansion phase². Current studies are exploring the use of multi-material twisted wire HXPs to produce two temporally spaced X-ray bursts, while also investigating the possibility of using this load configuration to produce line radiation in different soft X-ray energy bands at the time of micro-pinch formation. This study is utilizing the 450 kA peak current XP pulsed power generator with a rise time of 60 ns (10 to 90%). Its goal is to determine if the multi-material twisted wire HXP load configuration can predictably produce temporally spaced x-ray sources within the desired soft X-ray energy bands through material selection.