Renovating ``Sparky'' Facility to Investigate Gas-puff Z-pinches with X-ray Focusing Spectrometers
POSTER
Abstract
The compact x-ray/EUV facility ``Sparky'' at the UNR Physics Department's Plasma Physics and Diagnostics Laboratory (PPDL) was renovated to obtain high density and temperature plasmas with gas-puff Z-pinch experiments. The renovated facility will be used for plasma dynamics and radiation studies, benchmarking of theoretical codes, calibration of x-ray diagnostics, and training of UNR physics students. In ``Sparky'' vacuum spark tests, up to 110 kA with a 1-1.5 $\mu $s rise time have been measured with the capacitor bank at 17 kV of its 25 kV capacity. A gas-puff system has been developed with pre-ionization capabilities. Interferometry and Rayleigh scattering measurements indicate a hollow shell structure in the density of the supersonic Ar gas jet. A Hamos type spectrometer using a mica crystal and a Johann type spectrometer using a Si crystal were designed for x-ray spectroscopy of ``Sparky'' Z-pinches. Both spectrometers were tested with the UNR Leopard sub-ps laser and recorded x-ray spectra from laser interactions with Ar and Kr gas-puff jets from supersonic nozzles.
*This work was supported by the DOE/NNSA cooperative agreement DE-NA0001984, and in part by the DTRA grant HDTRA1-13-1-0033 and cooperative agreement DE-NA0002075.