Description
We report on experiments examining the dynamics of low current (25kA), long rise-time (400ns) X-pinches. The experiments used two and four wire 5µm tungsten X-pinches. We discuss coronal plasma dynamics, X-ray emission, cross-point evolution, and axial column dynamics . We show that the pinch dynamics are akin to those in x-pinches driven by 0.1-1.0MA and at rise-rates from 0.25-10kA/ns generators. We observe soft x-rays (~ 1-2keV range) in both the two-wire and four-wire x-pinches at about peak current from the cross-point. We also propose a mechanism for determining emission timing as a function of ion line density. The results here show that the compact current generators consisting of 2-4 small capacitors in a simple capacitive discharge circuit can produce good quality pinches for applications in Thomson X-ray scattering and backlighting among others.
