STRUCTURE OF A LARGE-RADIUS PINCH DISCHARGE
Initiation, development and dynamic progress of the current sheets and associated magnetic fronts in a large radius pinch discharge
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Initiation, development and dynamic progress of the current sheets and associated magnetic fronts in a large radius pinch discharge
Stability of hard-core pinch device with anisotropic plasma pressure
Inverse-pinch triggered gap switch converted to gas-triggered operation by adding discharge constrictor and ablating inner column insulator
Design and development of small toroidal Rogowski coil probes for direct current density distribution measurement in plasma pinch discharge
Dielectric constant of plasma in direct pinch magnetic field and in direct helical magnetic field
Plasma preheating in megajoule theta pinch device for subsequent magnetic compression
Quasi-neutral one dimensional static pinch solutions for distribution functions with two perpendicular temperatures
Magnetic field nonuniformity and its effect on stability of theta pinch plasma
Simplified theory and transducer potentialities of pinch effect in semiconductors
Pinched plasma reversed current induction due to relativistic electron beam injection
Theta pinch plasma enhanced radiation at far IR wavelengths, observing emission exceeding thermal bremsstrahlung
Pinch devices under laser heating, determining plasma density and temperature and confining magnetic field strength with thermodynamic model
Experiments are performed on the plasma produced in a large inverse pinch using argon with no applied magnetic fields or preheating. A direct observation is made of the precursor ionization which initially raises the electron temperature and electrical conductivity. Calculations show that most of the mass is entrained in the current sheet, but that less than complete sweeping occurs at the lower velocities. The shock which is embedded in the current sheet closely resembles an ordinary gasdynamic shock. Consideration of the shock jump condition derived from the induction equation is shown to determine the frequent inability of the shock to separate from the current sheet.
SiO2 glass has been irreversibly densified by pressures up to 250 kbar produced in a magnetic pinch apparatus. The threshold for significant densification was about 60 kbar. The recovered densities agree better with published shock wave results than with static results.
The introduction of a small percentage of an impurity gas containing a desired element into a theta-pinch plasma is a standard procedure used to investigate the spectra and atomic processes of the element. This procedure assumes that the mixing ratio of impurity-to-fill gases remains constant during the collapse and heating phase. Spectroscopic investigations of the constant-mixing-ratio assumption for a 2% neon and argon impurity verifies the assumption only for the neon impurity. However, for the 2% argon impurity, only 20 to 25% of the argon is in the high-temperature compressed plasma. It is concluded that the constant-mixing-ratio assumption is not applicable to the argon impurity.
A type of high-power pinch apparatus consisting of disk electrodes was developed, and diagnostic measurements to study its mechanism of dense plasma production were made. The collapse fronts of the current sheets are well organized, and dense plasma focuses are produced on the axis with radial stability in excess of 5 microns. A plasma density greater than 10 to the 18th power/cubic cm was determined with Stark broadening and CO2 laser absorption. A plasma temperature of approximately 1 keV was measured with differential transmission of soft X-rays through thin foils. Essentially complete absorption of a high-energy CO2 laser beam was observed. The advantages of this apparatus over the coaxial plasma focus are in (1) the plasma volume, (2) the stability, (3) the containment time, (4) the easy access to additional heating by laser or electron beams, and (5) the possibility of scaling up to a multiple array for high-power operation.
A high-power pinch apparatus consisting of disk electrodes was developed, and diagnostic measurements to study its mechanism of dense plasma production have been made. The collapse fronts of the current sheets are well organized, and dense plasma foci are produced on the axis with radial stability in excess of 5 microsec. A plasma density greater than 10 to the 18th power per cu cm is determined with Stark broadening and CO2 laser absorption. Essentially complete absorption of a high-energy CO2 laser beam has been observed. A plasma temperature of approximately 1 keV is measured with differential transmission of soft X-rays through thin foils. The advantages of this apparatus over the coaxial plasma focus are improvements in (1) plasma volume, (2) stability, (3) containment time, (4) access to additional heating by laser or electron beams, and (5) the possibility of scaling up to a multiple array for high-power operation.