Charged particles and x-ray emission studies on a dense plasma focus device

Abstract

The emission of charged particles, electron and ion beams, and radiation, soft and hard x-rays, from the pinching plasma have been investigated in the UofS-I dense plasma focus (DPF) device. The UofS-I DPF is in a Mather-type configuration, powered by a 2 kJ, 25 kV-charged capacitor bank, operated with 10–20 mTorr argon gas. The charged particles have been recorded using a Faraday cup for ion beam collection, and a charge collector and a Rogowski coil for the electron beam measurement. Moreover, the soft and hard x-rays have been detected using a BPX-65, filtered silicon PIN photodiode and a scintillator, respectively. The time delays of signals with respect to the pinch time have been compared. Strong correlations of the charged particles and the x-ray emission intensities with the voltage peak and current dip have been observed, and consequently indicate their dependence on the anode voltage and strength of pinching of plasma.

Keywords:

• Dense plasma focus
• ion beam
• soft x-ray

Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to the late Prof. Akira Hirose, former director of the Plasma Physics Laboratory of the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics the University of Saskatchewan, in recognition of his lifelong commitment and outstanding contributions to plasma physics and fusion research. This research has been sponsored by the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Center for Nuclear Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Center for Nuclear Innovation.

Notes on contributors

S. R. Chung

S. R. Chung is currently a physics laboratory instructor at the Memorial University. He completed his MSc thesis at the University of Saskatchewan in experimental physics specializing in plasma physics focusing on dense plasma focus devices with topics on optimization and radiation measurements.

R. A. Behbahani

Reza A. Behbahani, Ph.D. Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan with experimental background on dense plasma focus (DPF), linear accelerators (LINAC), pulsed power, and RF technologies. He is currently working on RF linear accelerator systems for radiation cancer therapy.

C. Xiao

Chijin Xiao received his B.Sc. (1982) and M.Sc. (1984) degrees from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China and his Ph.D. (Dr.rer.nat., 1990) degree from the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. His is currently a professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. His current research interests include the physics, engineering and application aspects related to plasma diagnostics and plasma devices such as tokamak, reversed field pinch, compact torus injector, and dense plasma focus. He is responsible for operation and research on the STOR-M tokamak and the University of Saskatchewan Compact Injector.