Compact submicrosecond, high current generator for wire explosion experiments

The description of a PIAF generator and the experimental results on PIAF with an X-pinch type load were presented. The generator is based on an RLC circuit having six NWL 180 nF - 50 kV capacitors. The experiments included an investigation of the X-pinch conduction time range, 100 ns - 1 μs. A single short radiation pulse was obtained from a small, point-like plasma. The x-ray source characteristics including hot spot size of 50 - 100 μm, radiation pulse duration of 1.5 - 2 ns and radiation yield of 250 - 500 mJ in the softer spectral range and 50 - 100 mJ in the harder range were obtained.