Characterization of Electron Beams from a Dense Plasma Focus*

The study of electron beam generation in a dense plasma focus (DPF) can yield insight into the physical mechanisms which lead to the formation of electron beams in pinched plasmas. A detailed understanding of these mechanisms may enable the production of a high-intensity x-ray source for various applications. Plasma polarization spectroscopy (PPS) is a novel diagnostic tool which will be employed in this proposed work to investigate the electron distribution function and fields within a DPF plasma. PPS relies on coupling sophisticated atomic and ionization modeling with emission data obtained with a specially designed spectropolarimeter. We plan to use PPS to measure the degree of polarization of several x-ray spectral lines emitted by a DPF driven by NRL’s Hawk pulsed-power generator. The measured degree of polarization will then be compared with atomic and radiation calculations for different electron distribution functions in order to diagnose the electron beam and infer the strength of the accelerating electric field in the DPF.