Restrike Particle Beam Experiments on a Dense Plasma Focus.
Abstract
Particle-beam diagnostic tools have been developed to study the particle beams generated by a dense plasma focus device (DPF). These tools include an ion Faraday cup, solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD), electron beam Rogowski coils, an electron beam Faraday cup, and an electron beam magnetic spectrometer. These tools (excepting the SSNTD) all have a bandwidth of greater than 100 MHz and experimental tests of these devices are consistent with theory. The SSNTD have been applied in a unique way to study deuteron beams of high fluence (> 10 to the 15th power/sq cm) generated by the DPF and the preliminary results are consistent with the neutron yield of the DPF using a beam-target model for neutron generation. Electron and ion energy spectras of the accelerated electron and ion beams have been measured using the above tools and it is found that the number of particles per unit energy obey a power law with particle energy for both types of particles. The exponent of this power law is roughly the same for both types of particles and varies between -3.3 and -4.0. Parallel plate coupling between the DPF device and the capacitor bank and an 80 kV trigger pulse with a rise time of less than 5 ns on the mainbank spark gaps appear to result in superior DPF performance in terms of neutron yield when compared with other DPF devices of the same mainbank current or bank energy. The application of the results of this research to opening switch technology is discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA095865
Entities
People
- Glenn Gerdin
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign