K-shell and recombination radiation of aluminum and neon Z-pinches at long time implosion regime

Theoretical investigation shows that it may be advantageous to produce kilovolt x-ray radiation in Z-pinch plasma radiation sources using recombination radiation emitted from a lower atomic number plasma rather than K-shell radiation of higher atomic number elements. We carried out the experiments with aluminum and neon z-pinch plasma radiation sources on the GIT-12 generator (2.5 MA, 300 ns). All experiments were carried out in a long time implosion regime (∼300 ns). A shell-on-solid-fill double gas puff was used in the experiments with neon, and a gas-puff-on-wire-array load was employed in aluminum z-pinch experiments. Special attention was given to the measurements of K-shell and recombination radiation of neon and aluminum. The load parameters were varied to optimize radiation yield in kilovolt spectral range.