Radiation physics and particle beam research on a medium-class dense plasma focus generator with complex diagnostics*

A newly developed dense plasma focus (DPF) Sparky III device is a medium class generator at UNR. Typical operation parameters are: current up to 450 kA in 1 - 1.5 microsecond rise time, voltage charge up to 25 kV, stored energy in capacity banks up to 10 kJ, and repetition rate up to 0.2 Hz. The operation gases are Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and their mixtures, with a pressure of 1 - 10 Torr. The diagnostics consist of high resolution optical interferometer, time resolved x-ray and particles detectors, soft x-ray and hard x-ray spectrometers and spectropolarimeters, and x-ray pinhole cameras. Present and future objectives of this research are: study radiation yield with mixed gases to reach maximum radiation yield in soft and hard x-rays (> 100 keV); perform extensive electron and ion beams studies on a DPF device; carry out the unique studies on statistics in Z-pinches by using DPF at high repetitive rate to understand the reproducibility of Z-pinches, radiation yields, and plasma parameters in a thousand shots. Comparison of new DPF results with data obtained in previous experiments with mixed gases jets irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses are discussed.