Thermonuclear fusion in a staged Z-Pinch.

摘要

The Staged Z-Pinch idea was born out of trying to understand the enhanced X-ray yield from shell onto target Z-Pinches I performed in the late 1980s as an undergraduate student at UCI [1]. The idea was further matured through later successes of multi-shell implosions demonstrated at UCI, the Ecole Polytechnique in France, and the Kurchatov Institute in Russia.; The Staged Z-Pinch is based upon a hybrid of a Z-Z and Z-Θ Pinch, i.e., an outer Z-Pinch drives Z and Θ currents on a separate coaxial inner target, through compression of axial and azimuthal magnetic fields trapped between the two. These fields provide magnetic shear stabilization. The load configurations tested were: 4 cm dia. Kr hollow gas shell liner with a 1.7 cm dia. D₂ hollow gas shell and solid D₂ gas jet targets.; It is experimentally and computationally observed, that the Kr liner achieves a spectrum of high charge states, which peels off and accelerates ahead of the bulk of the liner. As this Kr implodes onto the deuterium core, it compresses the axial and azimuthal magnetic fields trapped in the liner-target gap, driving the target as a Staged Z-Pinch. In addition, axial current is constantly transferring from the liner to the deuterium target, and eventually dominates over the staged z-pinching of the target and instead drives it as a Z-Pinch. Even without any initial axial B_z field both the peeling and implosion of the target appear RT stable. I call this type of load configuration a Peeled Pinch.; For our Staged Z-Pinch experiments, I designed and assembled a mega-ampere, μ s-class pulsed-power driver [2]. This would drive the Kr liner at current levels of 1.2 MA with implosion times of about 150 ns. To study the pinch I developed and installed neutron, optical, and x-ray diagnostics. For neutrons this includes: Ag activation, bubble and TOF detectors. For optical this includes: a N₂ laser schlieren and a streak camera diagnostics. For x-rays this includes: a pinhole camera, XRDS and PINs.