Dimensions and lifetime of the plasma focus pinch

In spite of intensive studies of the plasma focus, scaling laws, with the exception of those for neutron yield, are not well known. This paper points out that Mather-type plasma focus devices operated in the neutron-optimized regime have remarkably little variation in a drive parameter, (I/sub p//s)//spl rho/p/sub 0//sup 1/2/, the peak drive current per unit anode radius divided by the square root of the fill density; this quantity having the value of 89 kA/cm per torr deuterium equivalent of fill gas with a standard deviation of less than 10%. This parameter controls the speed of the plasma in both the axial and radial phases; and its constancy over a wide range of plasma focus devices really indicates that these devices all operate at the same axial and radial speeds, and hence by inference they all have the same temperatures in the axial and radial phases. Using a simple dynamical model the linear dimensions and time scales of the gross plasma focus pinch are shown to be related to the anode radius of the plasma focus device. The results of experiments performed with a 3-kJ device using different anodes are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.