Radiative properties of argon gas puff z-pinch implosions on COBRA

Abstract

Spatially resolved and time-integrated x-ray spectroscopy, combined with modeling of the spectra with detailed radiation kinetics and transport, is a powerful method to study the conditions in a hot moving plasma. K-shell argon spectra were measured from gas puff implosions with different center jet masses on the 1 MA COBRA generator at Cornell University. The outer to inner plenum pressures (1 and 3 psia, respectively) were the same for all shots producing an outer to inner mass ratio of 1:1. This paper uses non-local thermodynamic equilibrium kinetic modeling to infer the ion density, electron temperature, K-shell radiating mass, and K-shell powers from stagnating argon gas puff z-pinch implosion. We find that the implosions with a center jet produced bright spot regions of plasma with higher temperature and density than those without a jet.