Experimental and numerical studies of plasma production in the initial stage of implosion of a cylindrical wire array
- 1 December 2003
- journal article
- Published by Pleiades Publishing Ltd in Plasma Physics Reports
- Vol. 29 (12), 1034-1040
- https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1633623
Abstract
The features are studied of plasma production in the initial stage of implosion of hollow cylindrical wire arrays at electric-field growth rates of 1012 V/(cm s). The results are presented from the analysis of both UV emission from the wire plasma and the discharge parameters in the initial stage of the formation of a Z-pinch discharge. It is found that, a few nanoseconds after applying voltage to a tungsten wire array, a plasma shell arises on the wire surface and the array becomes a heterogeneous system consisting of metal wire cores and a plasma surrounding each wire (a plasma corona). As a result, the current switches from the wires to the plasma. A further heating and ionization of the wire material are due primarily to heat transfer from the plasma corona. A model describing the primary breakdown along the wires is created with allowance for the presence of low-Z impurities on the wire surface.Keywords
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