Planar wire array Z-pinches on QiangGuang-I facility

Planar wire array Z pinches were carried out on the QiangGuang-I facility (1.3 MA, 100 ns). The effect of prepulse current and insulating coatings on the Z pinch behavior is investigated. Commonly there is a multichannel gas switch filled with 0.5 Mpa dry air between the transmission line and the MITL to cut off the prepulse current. By varying gas pressure filled in the switch, the parameters of the prepulse current can be controlled. With a 0.2 Mpa pressure the prepulse amplitude and duration are 70 kA and 200 ns respectively. The total width and length of the single planar wire array loads are 15 mm and 2 cm respectively. The standard loads consist of ten tungsten wires with diameter of 15 μm. And for insulating loads there are 5 μm Polyimide coatings over the wires. Both two types of planar wire array loads were studied on QiangGuang-I facility with and without the prepulse current.