title: Optimal wire-number range for high x-ray power in long-implosion-time aluminum Z pinches.
abstract: Experiments performed on the 8-MA Saturn accelerator to investigate the effects of interwire gap spacing on long-implosion-time Z pinches have resulted in the observation of a regime of optimal wire number. The experiments varied the wire number of 40 and 32 mm diam arrays, resulting in interwire gaps from 3.9 to 0.36 mm, with fixed mass and length. aluminum K-shell powers up to 3.4 TW were measured, with long, slow rising, lower power x-ray pulses for interwire gaps greater than 2.2 mm and less than 0.7 mm, and short, fast rising, higher power pulses for interwire gaps in the range 0.7-2.2 mm.
authors.affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Coverdale
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deeney
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Apruzese
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Whitney
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Thornhill
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Davis