Investigation of High-Temperature Bright Plasma X-ray Sources Produced in 5-MA X-Pinch Experiments

Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom(Received 28 July 2012; published 9 October 2012)Using solid, machined X-pinch targets driven by currents rising from 0 to 5–6 MA in 60 ns, weobserved bright spots of 5–9-keV continuum radiation from 5!2-!m diameter regions. The >6-keVradiation is emitted in about 0.4 ns, and the bright spots are roughly 75 times brighter than the bright spotsmeasured at 1 MA. A total x-ray power of 10 TW peak and yields of 165 !20 kJ were emitted from a3-mm height. The 3–5-keV continuum radiation had a 50–90-GW peak power and 0.15–0.35-kJ yield.The continuum is plausibly from a 1275!75-eV blackbody or alternatively from a 3500!500-eVbremsstrahlung source.