Results of ultra compact plasma focus operating in repetitive burst-mode

The results of a miniature plasma focus are being presented in this paper which is operated with energy less than or equal to 150Joules. The miniature plasma focus is driven by a small capacitor bank and the peak current delivered in the focus is 75kA. The deuterium gas is filled with a pressure range of 5-7mbar inside the plasma focus chamber. The quartz glass is used for generating initial surface breakdown at 4-5kV discharge which is a typical value for low-voltage plasma focus discharges. The repetitive operation of the device is achieved by a combination of a simple and high power (5kW) power supply with the synchronized triggering of the capacitor bank at the time of isolation between supply and the capacitor bank. As the plasma focus chamber volume is very low, in order to achieve reduced after-shot contamination effects, the gas pressure inside the plasma focus is maintained by continuous pumping which is disallowed at the time of shorts rather having a sealed type plasma focus assembly. The results of such scheme are also discussed in the paper. The diameter of cathode is 25mm and anode diameter is 8-12mm and both of them are made of stainless steel. The length of anode and gas pressure is adjusted in such a way that the pinching occurs at the time of occurrence of the peak of current. It enhances the neutron emission from the device. The time-of-flight diagnostic is used to distinguish neutron and X-ray emission from the plasma focus. The device as can serve the purpose of being a portable and compact repetitive neutron source for various applications as the flux of the radiation is comparable with the bigger devices of same type. The modeling results of plasma focus are also compared with experimental results to give a broader picture of the device.