Plasma Dynamics of a Triple Gas-Puff Z-Pinch with and without an Axial Magnetic Field (0.2 Tesla) on the COBRA Pulsed Power Driver

Gas-puff Z-pinches are a magneto-inertially confined plasma where a column of gas is injected into a vacuum chamber and is pulsed with a large axial current that radially compresses the gas. The resulting system creates extreme plasma conditions with applications in fusion and radiation research. A gas puff Z-pinch is unstable to Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities but can be stabilized using an axial magnetic field [1,2]. Here we compare a multi-liner Z-pinch (Ne-Ne-H) with and without an external axial magnetic field (0.2 T) on the COBRA Marx driver (1 MA, 220 ns). The plasma dynamics were characterized using a 12-frame visible-light camera and two 4-frame XUV cameras. The radiation was characterized by a filtered time-integrated pinhole camera, pin diodes, and an X-ray spectrometer. Plasma density was characterized using interferometry and shadowgraphy. Plasma temperatures and densities were obtained using a Thomson Scattering diagnostic. We observed increased stabilization of the pinch but measured lower X-ray yields with the application of an axial magnetic field.

[1] T. J. Awe., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235005 (2013)

[2] F. Conti et al., Phys. Plasmas 27, 012702 (2020)