Experimental Study of Current Discharge Behavior and Hard X-ray Anisotropy by APF Plasma Focus Device

Amirkabir (APF) is a new Mather-type plasma focus device (16 kV, 36 μf, and 115 nH). In this work we present some experimental results as variation of discharge current signal respect to applied voltage at the optimum pressure, focusing time of plasma versus gas pressure, and variations of current discharge with different insulator sleeve dimensions. As we prospected optimum pressure tending to increase as we tried to higher voltage levels. The time taken by the current sheath to lift-off the insulator surface and therefore quality of pinched plasma depends on the length of the insulator sleeve. The results show that the insulator diameter can influence on pinch quality. Behavior of hard X-ray (HXR) signals with the pressure and also anisotropy of HXR investigated by the use of two scintillation detectors. The distribution of HXR intensity shows a large anisotropy with a maximum intensity between 22.5° and 45° and also between −22.5° and −67.5°.     

A Theoretical Study of the Effect of Discharge Parameters on the Plasma Layer in a Filippov Type Plasma Focus Device

In this paper, the theoretical ML model has been used to study the effect of three preliminary parameters (gas pressure, discharge voltage and the kind of the gas), to the current, azimuthal magnetic flux density, and the plasma layer pressure, in the Filippov type plasma focus device, Dena. Among others, it has been shown that to have an optimum pinch, the mentioned parameters should be selected in a manner so that the plasma sheath moves with an optimum velocity. A higher or lower velocity leads to pinch formation in an inappropriate time, when the plasma pressure is relatively low.     

Measurement and Processing of Fast Pulsed Discharge Current in Plasma Focus Machines

The fast pulsed electric discharge current drives all physical processes in the plasma focus device; in turn all physical processes in the focus affect the current waveform. Thus the discharge current waveform is the most important indicator of plasma focus performance. This underlies the importance of properly measuring, processing and interpreting the discharge current waveform. This paper reports the measurement of fast pulsed discharge current by the Rogowski coil, in two different modes: the current transformer, ??I?? mode, and current derivative, ??Idot?? mode. The processing and interpretation of recorded current waveform to obtain useful information about the physical processes in the plasma focus device are discussed. The current transformer with a large number of turns and a sub-1 Ohm terminator has good high frequency response, necessary for the sharp current dip region when dI/dt exceeds 2?×?10¹¹?A/s. However the signal is ??noisy?? in the current dip region. Several methods to extract the current dip from the noise are discussed and examples of how low pass filters affect the signals are shown. The dI/dt coil, the Rogowski coil in ??Idot?? mode, with a few turns terminated by 50-Ohm is also described. Integrating the 1?GSa/s digital waveform does remove the high frequency noise components, yet the extracted waveform shows sharp angular features indicative of the retention of short-time features. This makes the dI/dt coil superior to the current transformer. A 7-turn coil is tested against the Lee Model code and found to be suitable to measure the plasma focus discharge current.     

Temporal Variation of the Current Sheet Inductance from PACO Plasma Focus Device

The temporal variation of the current sheet (CS) inductance in a plasma focus device can be calculated using the current derivative and the voltage signal acquired on the anode electrode, which are very common measurements in this type of device. The value of that inductance contains important information about the discharge performed including the CS lift-off from the insulator, voltage between the pinch extremes, maximum energy of the X-ray, energy delivered to the pinch and information about the actuating fusion mechanisms if the filling pressure is deuterium. This work discusses the values of the CS inductance extracted from several discharges of the Plasma Auto Confinado (PACO) plasma focus, installed in the National University of the Center of Buenos Aires—Argentina (2 kJ total energy, capacitor bank of 4 μF charged to 31 kV and a maximum current of 250 kA).     

Ion Beam Emission in a Low Energy Plasma Focus Device

The characteristics of the Ar ion beam generated in a low energy plasma focus device were investigated. A Mather-type PF device filled with argon gas driven by an 11 μF single capacitor bank was used. A Faraday cup, operating in the bias ion collector mode, is used to estimate the energy spectrum and ion flux along the PF axis. The results of the experiments show the dependence of the energy spectrum on the gas pressure and the anode shape.     

Experimental Observation of Hot Spots in a Filippov-Type Plasma Focus Device

In this paper we have presented the experimental results of hot spots observation in different working conditions in Filippov-type Plasma Focus Device “Dena” (90 kJ, 25 kV), analyzing of these results have shown that the working conditions have great influence on hot spots formation. In using the pure gases like D₂, Ar, Kr and Ne the formation of hot spots has been seen rarely, and it can be related to impurities like vapoured metal from the anode surface, also in using the light impurities hot spots were not formed, and only for the heavy impurities like Kr the formation of hot spots have been observed. The discharge voltage also plays an important role in hot spots formation, for voltages less than 16 kV, hot spots have not been observed. Also, using the conic insert anode leads to more and distinct hot spots than the case of flat one. The best results of hot spot observation in these experiments have been achieved by using a conic insert anode and D₂ + 1% Kr as working gas.     

Prospects for 13N Production in a Small Plasma Focus Device

In this paper, the feasibility of ¹³N radioisotope production by a small plasma focus device for using in positron emission tomography (PET) has been studied. A large quantity of experimental data on the deuteron beam emission in dense plasma focuses are summarized and has been used in estimation of deuteron energy spectrum, intensity and angular distribution. The induced activity of ¹³N by ¹²C(d,n)¹³N reaction in an external solid target is calculated for different ‘m’ values (the power in energy distribution function of deuterons), and for a repetition rate plasma focus. A small plasma focus can produce ¹³N radionuclides in the order of 10 kBq in one shot, and it can be increased to few 10 MBq in a rep rate working mode with f = 10 Hz after 600 s operating time. Whereas a typical PET scan in myocardial blood perfusion assessment requires about 4 GBq radiopharmaceutical of ¹³N, it is concluded that a small plasma focus device, even with repetition frequency of f = 10 Hz can’t produce adequate ¹³N activity for this special PET imaging. Nonetheless, higher producible activities in higher energy PF devices and by endogenous production methods (i.e., nuclear reactions are induced inside the pinch itself) maybe result to introduction of an optimized repetitive high energy plasma focus as an alternative for cyclotrons in this special application.     

Investigation of the Neutron Production Mechanism in a 20 kJ Plasma Focus Device

Neutron production mechanisms in a medium energy plasma focus device (20 kJ) were investigated. The time-resolved hard X-ray, neutron signals were obtained with two detectors based on a plastic scintillator–photomultiplier combination located at two different angles (0°, 90°) to the plasma chamber and 10 m from the top of the anode. Neutron signal intensities at 0° and 90° were recorded for comparison. Neutron intensity width results in a distribution of neutron energy in the 0°, direction greater than the energy of thermonuclear neutrons (2.45 MeV).     

Simultaneity of Spark Gap Switch Firing in the Dense Plasma Focus Device

To gain insight into the synchronization, simultaneity, and switching behavior of the individual switch, two TIA-525 Optical/Electrical converters have been recently introduced to DPF experiments at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP). These electronic devices, attached to two spark gap switches through optical fibers, detect light sampled from the switch firing and convert it to amplified voltage signals. We observed that in terms of simultaneity and synchronization, the firing behavior and quality of the pair of switches monitored are not the same. Some switches, among the twelve that are being used, fired at the trigger voltage within few tens of ns while the others fired much later (after ~1–2 μs) and are triggered at or after the pinch voltage rise. The results from the present work show evidence of pinch voltage triggering the switches. Since the pinch voltage is over three times the voltage of the capacitors, this voltage triggers those capacitors that do not fire during the regular high voltage trigger pulse. This, we suggest, could affect the efficiency of the device as it simply drains the reserved energy in the system. We present results of an empirical study of spark gap switch firing as well as the total current that is followed using the Rogowski coil.     

Investigation of the Neutron Angular Distribution and Neutron Yield on the APF Plasma Focus Device

This paper presents an experimental study of neutron yield as well as neutron angular distribution on the APF plasma focus device. The system operates with pure deuterium gas in varying the filling pressure and working voltages of 11.5 and 13.5 kV. The maximum average of neutron yield is (2.88 ± 0.29 × 10⁸) neutrons per shot at the pressure of 7 torr. The neutron angular distribution is measured with housing an array of seven silver activation Geiger-Muller counters at the angles of 0°, ±30°, ±60°, and ±90° in a distance of 90 cm from the anode tip. The results of neutron angular distribution suggest that the neutron production mechanism may be predominantly beam target model.     

Angular Distribution of Argon Ions and X-Ray Emissions in the Apf Plasma Focus Device

Angular distribution of ion beam emission from an argon gas-filled plasma focus devices has been investigated using an array of five Faraday cups. The argon ion beam emission is found to be highly pressure-dependent and reaches its maximum at the pressure of 1 torr. The ions flux decreased as the working pressure increased; the maximum ion density at 1 torr was estimated to be around 9.24 × 10²⁴ ions/steradian. Also, the study on the angular distribution of X-rays has been carried out using TLD-100 dosimeters. The intensity of ions reduced significantly at angles higher than ±11° but the X-ray distribution was bimodal, peaked approximately at ±15°.     

Magnetic Reynolds Number and Neon Current Sheet Structure in the Axial Phase of a Plasma Focus

The Magnetic Reynolds Number (MRN) in neon is computed as a function of Neon shock speed. The magnetic field profiles at various positions in the axial run down phase of the INTI Plasma Focus device are measured over a range of pressures from 2 to 20 Torr. These profiles are assessed for good electromagnetic coupling including measuring the current per unit current sheet thickness as a comparative measure of current sheet diffusion. It was found that at an axial current sheet speed of over 3.5 cm/μs (corresponding to MRN > 15), the current sheet has a compact profile with current density of 55 kA/cm of sheet thickness whereas at speeds below 2.8 cm/μs (corresponding to MRN < 10) the profile is more diffuse with current density less than 30 kA/cm of sheet thickness. Based on these studies it is proposed to take a speed of 3 cm/μs corresponding to an MRN of 10 as the minimum speed of neon current sheet below which the electromagnetic coupling begins to weaken.     

Radiation Emission Correlated with the Evolution of Current Sheath from a Deuterium Plasma Focus

The time resolved emission of neutrons and X-rays (both soft and hard) is correlated with the current sheath evolution during the radial phase of a 3.2 kJ Mather-type plasma focus device operated in deuterium at an optimised pressure of 4 mbar. A three-frame computer-controlled laser shadowgraphy system was incorporated in the experiment to investigate the time evolution of the radial phase of the plasma focus. The dynamics of the sheath was then correlated with the time resolved X-rays and neutron emission. The time-resolved neuron and hard X-ray emission was detected by a Scintillator-photomultiplier system while the time resolved soft X-rays were detected employing filtered PIN photo diodes. The observations were recorded with a temporal accuracy of a few ns. For the reference, the total neutron yield was also monitored by an Indium Foil activation detector. The correlation with the High Voltage Probe signal of the discharge, together with the X-ray and neutron emission regimes enabled to identify the important periods of the sheath evolution i.e. the radial compression (pre focus), minimum pinch radius (focus) and the post focus phenomena. During the initial stage of the radial phase, velocities of 10–23 cm/μs, while at the later stage of the radial phase (up till the compression), velocities up to 32–42 cm/μs were measured in our experiment. For the discharges with the lower neutron yield (lower than the average value ~1 × 10⁸ n/discharge), the current sheath appears to be disturbed and neutron and hard X-ray signal profiles do not carry much information whereas the soft X-ray emission is significant. For the discharges with high neutron yield (higher than the average value), the current sheath has a smooth structure until the maximum compression occurs. Hard X-ray emission is maximum for the discharges with high neutron yield, especially whenever there is development of m = 0 instability compressing the column to very high densities. The neutron are emitted long after the maximum compression supporting the beam target fusion. For the discharges with High neutron yield, the soft X-ray production is less as compared to the discharges with low neutron yield.     

Studies on Ion Emission from the Plasma Focus Device by Using Ion Collector and Track Detector

Ion beam emission from a neon gas filled plasma focus device has been studied by using ion collector and solid state nuclear track detector. The neon ion beam emission is found to be highly pressure dependant and it is maximum at a pressure of 0.3 Torr. The maximum ion energy at 0.3 Torr is estimated to be 1 MeV. Preliminary results on solid state nuclear track detector indicate the formation of tracks in CR-39 due to exposure of neon ions. The average rim diameter of tracks is measured to be 4.35 μm and the number of track is of the order of 10¹⁰ track/m².     

Effect of Quartz and Pyrex Insulators Length on Hard-X ray Signals in APF Plasma Focus Device

This paper, presents the variation of hard X-ray (HXR) intensity in the APF plasma focus device for different insulator sleeves. For Pyrex and Quartz insulators, the lengths of 40 and 50 mm seems optimal to yield maximum HXR intensity, respectively. Also using the Pyrex insulator leads to production of higher HXR intensity than the Quartz insulator. The results illustrate that the length and the material of the insulator has a considerable effect on the HXR intensity.     

Characterization of the Soft X-Ray Emission from the APF Plasma Focus Device Operated in Neon

Experimental results related to soft X-ray (SXR) properties of Neon plasma on the APF plasma focus device is presented. The experiments were carried on over wide range of neon pressure and at voltages 11, 12 and 13 kV six filtered photo PIN diodes and pin-hole camera. For the charging voltages of 11–13 kV with 2.17–3.04 kJ stored energy, the optimum operating pressure in neon is found to be in the range of 3.5–5 torr. The behavior of SXR intensities was registered by different filters and found out that Al-Mylar 6 μm and Cu 10 μm has the highest and lowest amount of X-ray transmission, respectively.     

Study of the Soft and Hard X-Ray Emitted by APF Plasma Focus Device in Different Pressures

In this paper, an investigation on the X-rays emitted in different pressures by APF plasma focus devices using filtered PIN-diodes and fast plastic scintillation detector is reported. The highest X-ray emission was observed in the pressure of 1.6 torr and the behavior of X-ray intensities registered by different filters versus applied pressure were seemed to be similar. The X-ray angular distribution was bimodal, peaked approximately at ±18°. The intensity of X-rays decreased abruptly along the central axis of the device where the cylindrical plasma pinch was formed.