Power enhancement by increasing the initial array radius and wire number of tungstenZpinches

Tungsten wire array implosions on the 7- to 8-MA Saturn generator have been optimized using wire number and array diameter variations to produce $75\pm 10\mathrm{TW}$ of x rays with total energy outputs of $450\pm 50\mathrm{kJ}.$ By increasing the number of wires in a 12.5-mm-diam array from 24 to 70 and simultaneously decreasing the individual wire diameter from 13 to 7.5 μm, the total radiated power increased from $20\pm 3$ to $40\pm 6\mathrm{TW}$ and the x-ray pulse width decreased from 18 to 8.5 ns. In addition, a diameter scan at an implosion time of $50\pm 5\mathrm{ns}$ showed that the pulse width has a strong dependence on collapse velocity and wire thickness. For the largest diameter load of 17.5 mm with 120 5-μm-diam wires, a 4-ns pulse width with a peak power of $75\pm 10\mathrm{TW}$ was achieved: four times power gain over the 20-TW electrical power generated by the pulsed power system. Time-resolved pinhole photography confirms that the power enhancement with increased wire number is associated with the plasma achieving a tighter compression and better axial uniformity. For the higher-velocity implosions, we infer from two-dimensional radiation-magnetohydrodynamic calculations that the plasma becomes hotter and hence radiates at a higher brightness temperature. Zero- and two-dimensional load models coupled with a detailed circuit model have shown expected radial kinetic energies in the range of 100–200 kJ. The total radiated energy of $>400\mathrm{}\mathrm{kJ}$ in a 4–20-ns FWHM pulse exceeds the total kinetic energy by more than a factor of 2. Two-dimensional, three-temperature simulations reproduce the observed trends in powers and pulse widths by using a variable initial random density perturbation. These calculations also indicate that the radiated energy is accounted for by the total work done on the plasma by the magnetic field.