Effect of core-corona plasma structure on seeding of instabilities in wire array Z pinches
We present the first measurements by x-ray radiography of the development of instabilities during the implosion phase of wire array Z pinches. The seeding of perturbations on the dense core of each wire is provided by nonuniform sweeping of the low-density coronal plasma from the cores by the global JxB force. The spatial scale of these perturbations ( approximately 0.5 mm for Al and approximately 0.25 mm for W) is determined by the size of the wire cores ( approximately 0.25 mm for Al and approximately 0.1 mm for W). A qualitative change in implosion dynamics, with transition to 0D-like trajectory, was observed in Al arrays when the ratio of interwire gap to wire core size was decreased to approximately 3.
Lebedev
SV
The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom.
Beg
FN
Bland
SN
Chittenden
JP
Dangor
AE
Haines
MG
Pikuz
SA
Shelkovenko
TA