Fast z-pinches as dense plasma, intense x-ray sources for plasma physics and fusion applications

As a result of advances in fast pulsed-power technology and cylindrical load fabrication, the Z pulsed-power accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories drives currents approaching 20 MA with a rise time of approximately 100 ns through cylindrically-symmetric loads (typically a cylindrical array consisting of a few hundred wires) to produce plasma densities in excess of 10(21) ions cc(-1), x-ray output energies approaching 2 MJ, radiation pulses as short as 4 ns and peak x-ray powers as high as 280 +/- 40 TW. More than 15% of the stored electrical energy in the Z pulsed-power accelerator is converted into x-rays. The plasma pressures at peak compression are several TPa with electron temperatures that can exceed 3 keW at containment magnetic fields exceeding 1000 T. Depending on the atomic number and composition of the imploding plasma, these z-pinches can be tailored to produce intense sources of thermal x-rays, keV x-rays or neutrons. Although applications of these x-ray sources have included research in radiation material interaction, equations of state, opacity, astrophysics and x-ray lasers, the principal focus of the present research is to use them for indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF).