Scaling of radiation parameters of planar and compact cylindrical wire arrays at the 1MA zebra generator

Analysis is presented on scaling of radiated x-ray power, energy and implosion timing of single planar wire arrays (SPWA), double planar wire array (DPWA), and compact cylindrical wire array (CCWA) loads (diameter is 3 and 6 mm) of Mo and W with respect to current peak (0.8-1.4 MA), mass and array dimensions at 100ns current pulse. Such scaling investigations are important for understanding the potential of these loads as an ICF radiation source ⁷. These data are used to identify promising directions to pursue with regard to highest x-ray output, smallest load size, and most consistent shot-to-shot performance. It is shown that W SPWA and DPWA total energy yield and peak power increased near-quadratically with current. DPWA scans of inter-planar gaps from 1.5mm to 9mm show an output maximum at 1.5mm with decreasing output for 6mm and 9mm. A DPWA width scan shows that radiation yields decrease slowly as the width is decreased, which may allow for more compact loads without significant sacrifice to the output radiation. A mass scan of several W loads show that the implosion timing increases with mass.