EXTRUDED SODIUM WIRES FOR Z-PINCH IMPLOSIONS

Presently, investigation of the sodium-neon photopump x-ray laser scheme on Z pinches is hindered by the lack of a well-defined sodium source. Metal vapor sources have been pursued; however, they have tended to be less characterized than the traditional wire arrays and gas puffs. In this note, the development of a sodium wire extruder which produces an array of 6 or 12, greater than 50 μm diameter, wires is described and successful implosions of the said array on the DNA/Double-EAGLE generator are reported.