Stagnation and Disruption of Wire Array Z-Pinch Radiation Sources on the Z Pulsed Power Generator

Magnetic implosions provide extremely intense soft X-ray radiation on the Z accelerator. Shock heating at stagnation provides temperatures that are capable of producing K-shell radiation from stainless steel plasma. Time-gated multicolor X-ray pinhole imaging is used to study stagnation and disruption in fast Z pinches. Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities are observed to grow, following peak X-ray power until the Z-pinch column disrupts well after the main power pulse.