Lithium niobate stress gauge current diagnostic for noninductive measurement of fast-rise-time multimegampere currents

Abstract

Accurate modeling of load behavior in Z-pinch plasma radiation sources driven by high-current generators requires the measurement of fast-rise-time multimegampere currents close to the load. Conventional current diagnostics mounted in inductive cavities (such as B-dot loops and Rogowski coils) fail at small radius because of electrical breakdown produced by high dI/dt. In this paper, we describe the use of large-signal, nanosecond-time-resolution lithium niobate piezoelectric stress gauges to directly measure the magnetic pressure B2/2μ0=μ0I2/8π2r2 generated at radius r by a current I flowing in a radial transmission line. Current measurements have been performed at radius r=2.54×10−2 m on Sandia National Laboratories’ Proto-II (10 TW) and SATURN (30 TW) gas puff Z-pinch experiments with maximum currents of 10.1 MA and dI/dt to 2.1×1014 A/s. Comparisons with Faraday rotation and B-dot current diagnostic measurements at large radius are presented. Bremsstrahlung noise problems unique to the SATURN gas puff source are discussed. For a Y-cut lithium niobate stress gauge on a pure tungsten electrode, current densities up to I/2πr=78 MA/m can be measured before the electrode yield strength and the piezoelectric operating stress limit are exceeded. Above the Hugoniot elastic limit of the electrode material, the dynamic range and accuracy of the diagnostic are greatly reduced, but it appears that the technique can be extended to higher current densities using an X-cut quartz piezoelectric element and a tungsten-sapphire electrode impedance stack.