Tapered Coaxial Plasma Gun Electrodes

摘要

The effect of using tapered electrodes with a coaxial plasma gun is studied numerically with a computer. For low-impedance capacitor banks, a 30 percent or larger increase in linear current density before the collapse into a pinch is predicted. The neutron yield should be proportional to the fourth power of the linear current density before collapse. Thus, a factor of three or more in neutron production is predicted without increasing the stored energy of a given capacitor bank. (Author)