Soft x-ray source based on the point Z-pinch for pulse radiography

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the study of the influence of the cathode material of a plasma injector on the parameters of the x-ray source of a point Z-pinch (PZ-pinch). The experiments were carried out on the compact pulse power radiograph PR-PZP-M1 (210 kA, 220 ns). The new type of the plasma injector based on a ceramic insulator and a composite cathode is developed and tested in the experiments. PZ-pinches based on tin, silver and gold were studied. It was shown that tin is the most applicable material to the PZ-pinch formation in terms of radiography. The PZ-pinch mass optimization has been carried out to obtain the brightest x-ray source with minimum sizes. The achieved x-ray source diameter is 12 ± 3 μm, height is 18 ± 5 μm in the spectral range hν = 1–3 keV.