Preliminary experiments on a compact X-pinch device

Based on a compact (2 m1 m1.5 m) pulsed current generator (~100 kA, 60 ns), a table-top X-pinch device was constructed and tested. The load current was almost unchanged for X-pinches made using different wires (5 m, 8 m, 10 m and 13 m Wu wires, 13 m and 25 m Mo wires), which means that the impedance of the wires is much lower than the total impedance of the load section. When the above mentioned wires were used as two-wire load, X-ray pulses from X-pinch were always observed. As the mass of the two-wire load increases, the time delay of the X-ray emission relative to the beginning of the load current increases. The X-ray pulse consists of single peak or two overlapping peaks of subnanosecond pulsewidth. Two X-ray pulses with a time interval on the order of 10 ns were often observed for a small mass load when the load current was high enough. The appearance of the second X-ray pulse is attributed to the second pinch of the plasma.