Characterization of Soft X-Rays Generated in Gas-Puffed Z-Pinch

Abstract

Soft X-rays generated with a gas-puff pinch device is characterizedusing a pinhole camera which enables a quantitative intensitymeasurement, a Bragg imaging spectrometer and an X-ray diode. Aneutral argon shell whose line density was 8.1× 10¹⁷ atoms/cm(M=5.5× 10^-5 g/cm) was formed between the electrodes. Thesoft X-rays were emitted for about 10 ns in the early stage of theplasma column formation. Highly localized and intense soft X-raysources, so-called hot spots, were observed in the pinched plasma. Theemitted energy was estimated to be 50± 15 J into 4π sr, for ArK-lines. The reproducibility of the X-ray emission are discussed.