Implosion dynamics and radiation characteristics of preconditioned hybrid X-pinch driven by double pulse current

Preconditioned hybrid X-pinch (HXP) experiments have been performed on the Qin-1 facility to investigate the effect of the prepulse current on the implosion dynamics and radiation characteristics. HXPs with molybdenum wires of ∼1.2 mm in length and 25 to 50 μm in diameter have been tested. Driven by the prepulse current, the molybdenum wire is heated to a core-corona structure with a Joule energy deposition of 0.5–4.8 eV/atom, which is smaller than its atomization enthalpy. The radial expansion velocity of the wire core is 0.5–3 km/s. The main current of 450 kA/400 ns is applied ∼610 ns after the prepulse current. The implosion dynamics of the preconditioned HXP is characterized by two-shell structure implosion. Immediately after the main current starts, the current mainly passes through the corona plasma located in a large radius, and the implosion of corona plasma lasts for ∼100 ns until the corona plasma collides with the wire core. Then, the current distribution switches from the corona plasma to the wire core, which results in the onset of implosion of the wire core. The implosion of the wire core generates hot spots and x-ray radiation. The calculated inductance and radius of the current sheath agree with the experimental results. The corona plasma performs as a current switch, which allows the main current passing through the wire core after 100 ns. It indirectly contributes to sharpening the main current used for implosion of the wire core. A single hot spot with x-rays over 2.5 keV is measured using the preconditioned HXP.