Experimental study of a Plasma in the constriction of a fast Z-pinch

Experimental studies of the formation of constrictions in the dense hydrocarbonic Z-pinch plasma were performed in the Modul A-5 device (V = 100 kV, I = 4.5 MA, p = 0.04 Ohm). The formation of the constriction was accompanied by the creation of a dense hot plasma with the large Lawson parameter nτ. The plasma parameters were measured by using X-ray diagnostics: an X-ray crystal spectrograph, semiconductor detectors, a multihole pin-hole camera, and X-ray image tubes. The formation of hot dense plasma regions with the characteristic size ≤100 μm, temperature from 0.6 to 0.8 keV, and density n_e ≈ 10²² cm^-3 was observed in the region where the initial constriction was preformed.