Plasma flow switch and foil implosion experiments on Pegasus II

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PPC.1993.514044· OSTI ID:7368453

Cochrane, J C; Bartsch, R R; Benage, J R; Forman, P R; Gribble, R F; Ladish, J S; Oona, H; Parker, J V; Scudder, D W; Shlachter, J S; Wysocki, F J

Pegasus II is the upgraded version of Pegasus, a pulsed power machine used in the Los Alamos AGEX (Above Ground EXperiments) program. A goal of the program is to produce an intense (> 100 TW) source of soft x-rays from the thermalization of the kinetic energy of a 1 to 10 MJ plasma implosion. The radiation pulse should have a maximum duration of several 10's of nanoseconds and will be used in the study of fusion conditions and material properties. The radiating plasma source will be generated by the thermalization of the kinetic energy of an imploding cylindrical, thin, metallic foil. This paper addresses experiments done on a capacitor bank to develop a switch (plasma flow switch) to switch the bank current into the load at peak current. This allows efficient coupling of bank energy into foil kinetic energy.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 7368453
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-93-2304; CONF-930616--7; ON: DE93016464
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
426000* -- Engineering-- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits-- (1990-)
661300 -- Other Aspects of Physical Science-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CAPACITIVE ENERGY STORAGE EQUIPMENT
DESIGN
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
FOILS
IMPLOSIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
KINETIC ENERGY
PLASMA SWITCHES
PULSE TECHNIQUES
RADIATIONS
SWITCHES
X RADIATION