Uniform fill improves K-shell power relative to annular fill for argon gas puffs on Saturn

Summary form only given. The radiation from uniform-fill argon gas puffs on the Saturn accelerator with a 4.5-cm diameter nozzle are compared with that generated from a previously optimized 2.5-cm diameter annular nozzle. The pressure range of the uniform fill spanned 1300 to 2900 Torr and that of the annular nozzle was set to 1650 Torr-the pressure that previously maximized the K-shell radiation yield. B-dot monitors measured current in the MITLs and 4.5 cm upstream of the load. A bolometer and duplicate sets of filtered XRDs and PCDs, spanning the energy range of 200 eV to 6 keV, monitored the temporal characteristics of the radiation. A suite of time-integrated and time-resolved, filtered, fast-framing, X-ray pinhole cameras, and crystal spectrometers monitored the spatial and spectral structure of the radiation. The radial density profile of the initial gas profile was measured on a test stand at NRL using a two-color interferometer.