Inverse Z-pinch in fundamental investigations

This paper is devoted to examination of the possibility of using deuterium inverse Z-pinch for investigation of the dd reaction at ultralow deuterium collision energies. The experiment was carried out at the Institute of High-Current Electronics (Tomsk) using the high current accelerator (the current pulse amplitude is 850 kA, the high-voltage pulse duration is similar to 80 ns). The characteristic data of the deuterium liner accelerated by the inverse Z-pinch process up to (2.8-7.2) x 10(7) cm/s were measured for the first time. The character and values of gamma and neutron radiation occurred during the liner acceleration process were examined. The application of fast scintillator neutron detectors with definite size and a deuterium target located at distances more than 140 mm from the liner axis was demonstrated to allow reliable time separation of "useful" events from background events. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.