Electromagnetic emissions from a laser heated Z-pinch plasma

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5315936

Tucker, J E

The soft x-ray and visible electromagnetic emissions from a dense helium Z-pinch plasma were investigated with and without heating by a high power CO/sub 2/ laser. In the case of the unheated plasma, soft x-ray emission measurements were consistent with a thermalized plasma at a temperature of 30 eV. These measurements were performed by a foil-filtered photomultiplier tube which measured the frequency integrated soft x-ray emissions. Time resolved visible spectroscopic measurements were performed with a gated optical multichannel analyzer. During the pinch, the visible emissions were dominated by a strongly Stark broadened He II line at 468.6 nm. The width of that line corresponded to an electron density of 10/sup 19/ electrons/cm/sup -3/, which agreed well with results from holographic interferometry. Line-to-continuum measurements for the He II 468.6 nm line also resulted in an electron temperature of between 20 and 30 eV. In the case of the high power laser heating of the pinch plasma, the frequency integrated soft x-ray emissions were consistent with an inverse bremsstrahlung modified electron distribution, rather than a bi-Maxwellian distribution. The results of the soft x-ray measurements for the laser heated plasma indicated that the temperature was approximately 50-100 eV.

• Research Organization: Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5315936
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101 -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
700102* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Diagnostics
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
FLUIDS
GASES
HEATING
HELIUM
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
LINEAR PINCH DEVICES
LINEAR Z PINCH DEVICES
NONMETALS
OPEN PLASMA DEVICES
PHOTON EMISSION
PINCH DEVICES
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
RADIATIONS
RARE GASES
SOFT X RADIATION
STARK EFFECT
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
VISIBLE RADIATION
X RADIATION