SPECTRA OF HIGHLY IONIZED NEON AND ARGON IN A PLASMA FOCUS DISCHARGE

Valency-electron transitions with up to 4 kev energy in highly stripped ions are produced in the transient pinch which occurs in a coaxial plasma gun 'Plasma Focus'. New or improved wavelengths for transitions in H-like and He-like neon and argon ions are measured and are identified by comparison with Hartree-Fock (HX) calculations of atomic structure made by Cowan in 1966 and 1968. Observed wavelengths of the He-like resonance lines lead to extrapolated values for the ionization potentials of Ar XVII and Ne IX. Inner-shell transitions in less highly stripped ions are also identified.