Current Interruption and Particle Beam Generation by a Plasma Focus.
Abstract
Through collaboration with Dr. K. H. Schoenbach of Texas Tech University the plasma focus opening switch (PFOS) was revised to answer basic questions as to utility of the concept. To estimate the plasma temperature and classical resistivity a soft X-ray spectrometer and X-ray pinhole camera were developed. The temperature was estimated from a coronal model to range between 0.4 to 0.5 keV for either a nitrogen or neon impurity (1 to 2%) in deuterium at 3 torr. Strong pinches were observed in pure neon (0.6 torr) with an electron temperature in the same range. The corresponding classical resistance of the pinch is 9 m omega whereas 500 m omega is more consistent with output voltage pulse and current flow at interruption indicating anomalous resistivity is present. A one-dimensional two-fluid computer code has been developed to model anomalous resistivity in the pinch phase and preliminary results are consistent with the snowplow model. The final analysis of the plasma focus particle beam generation experiments was completed and a strong correlation was found for the beam-target model as the mechanism for neutron production in the Illinois plasma focus device. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA125024
Entities
People
- Francesco Venneri
- Glenn Gerdin
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign