Effect of the cathode radius on plasma dynamics and radiation emissions in a spherical plasma focus device

Abstract

In this work, the developed spherical plasma focus model is used to investigate the effect of the cathode radius on the plasma dynamics and radiation emissions. The cathode radius is varied from 11.5 cm to 17 cm with 0.5 cm increment, and the results are reported in this paper for the spherical plasma focus with 8 cm inner electrode (anode) radius. While discharge current and voltage, plasma and shock velocities, and radiation emissions are found to be higher for short cathode radius, plasma resistance increases with increasing cathode radius. This study also shows that the optimum cathode radius for plasma dynamics and radiation emissions is 15 cm for the used spherical plasma focus device.