Investigation of the spatial distribution of matter in aZ-pinch using plasma interferometry

A qualitative analysis is presented of the spatial distribution of the electron density in a plasma pinch formed by electrodynamic compression of a hollow multistage gas liner by a microsecond current pulse of amplitude ≈ 350 kA. The plasma was probed with a laser radiation pulse of 7 nsec duration and 532 nm wavelength. Calculations are performed and are used to construct the dependences of the radial and axial distributions of the matter in theZ-pinch at the moment when the plasma image was recorded, an estimate is made of the mass of compressed gas per unit length, and the results are compared with those of one-dimensional and zero-dimensional modeling of liner compression. Institute of Power Electronics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated from izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 76–81, February, 1999.