Investigation of a double cylindrical Z pinch

The double cylindrical Z pinch has been investigated experimentally and the relevant parameters were computed with a modified snowplow model. The apparatus had a radius of approximately 10 cm, an anode-cathode distance of 3.6 cm, and a capacitor bank of 1.7410-4 Farad operated at 16.5 kV with a filling of approximately 1016 molecules cm-3. A plasma with a density of approximately 1018 particles/cm2 with an ion temperature of approximately 300 eV was collected at the center of the chamber. The plasma emitted up to 107 DD neutrons, soft and hard X-rays. The pulse length was approximately 400 ns, considerably longer than a neutron pulse from a simple pinch. The plasma expanded in an orderly way after the emission. However, most of the neutrons and X-rays originated from an acceleration mechanism as concluded from the shape and height of the neutron pulse and from the computations. A very long X-ray pulse of a few mu secs, reported earlier, has not been observed.