Experimental study of a small gas-puff Z-pinch device

A small gas puff Z-pinch device has been constructed and operated. The device has the parameters: the capacitance of energy storage capacitors 16 mu F, charging voltage 22 kV, peak current 2 10 kA and a quarter of current period 2.4 mu s. A three-frame Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a compact Thomson ion energy analyzer were developed for Z-pinch plasma experiment. According to the results of diagnostics, the electron density n(c) of the plasma right before pinch instant is larger than 5.4 x 10(19)/cm(3), the corresponding pinch velocity v of the plasma sheath is 9.0 cm/mu s. Clear parabolas produced by neon ions Ne+, Ne2+, Ne3+ and Ne4+ on CR-39 target have been observed. The energy spectra dN/dTd omega for Ne+, Ne2+, Ne3+ and Ne4+ ions were determined. The highest energies of Ne+, Ne2+, Ne3+ and Ne4+ ions emitted from our Z-pinch plasma are below 1.3 MeV.