Publications
Nested stainless steel wire array diameter variations on the Z accelerator
Over the last few years, a variety of experiments studying higher photon energy (>4 keV) radiators have been performed, primarily at the Z accelerator. In this paper, the results of experiments designed to study the effects of initial load diameter on the radiated output of stainless steel wire arrays are presented. Stainless steel is primarily iron, which radiates in the K-shell at 6.7 keV. Nested wire arrays from 45 mm initial outer diameter to 80 mm outer diameter were fielded at the Z accelerator. A nested array consists of two wire arrays, with the inner concentric to an outer. All of the arrays fielded for this work had a 2:1 mass and diameter ratio (outer:inner), and the arrays were designed to have the same implosion time. A degradation of K-shell output was observed (pulse shape and power) for the smallest and largest diameter arrays, suggesting a region in which optimal conditions exist for K-shell output. The degradation at small diameters results from the reduced eta value, due to low implosion velocity. Eta is defined as the kinetic energy per ion divided by the energy required to get to the K-shell. At large diameters, a dramatic degradation of output is observed not just for the K-shell, but also for the lower energy X-rays. This may be the result of the low mass required to maintain an appropriate implosion time - there simply aren't many radiators available to participate. One other possibility is that the higher acceleration necessary at large diameters to achieve the same implosion time results in additional instability growth. Also necessary to consider are the effects of interwire gap: due to the limited wire sizes available, the interwire gap on the large diameter loads is large, in one case more than 3 mm. Comparisons of the trends observed in the experiments (radiated yield, pulse shape, and spectra) will be made to calculations previously benchmarked to K-shell data obtained at Z. The reproducibility of the arrays, advanced imaging diagnostics fielded, current diagnostics, and sensitivities of the calculations are also discussed.