STUDY OF HYBRID X PINCHES IN DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

A standard X-pinch consists of two or more fine wires that cross at a single point as the load of a pulsed power generator. To simplify the X-pinch load, a hybrid configuration consisting of solid conical electrodes connected by a wire, has been suggested and tested on four generators ranging in current from 200 kA to 1 MA and risetimes varying from 45 to 170 ns. The experiments have shown that for each generator, a wire material, diameter and length can be found for which the X-pinches generate a single intense burst of soft x-rays and develop a single hot spot. Also they generated less hard x-ray intensity than that measured in comparable standard X-pinches.