Experimental study on imploding characteristics of wire-array Z pinches on Qiangguang-1 facility

To investigate the imploding characteristics of cylindrical wire array, experiments with load current varying from 1.5 MA to 1.7 MA were carried out on the Qiangguang-1 facility. The complicated temporal-spatial distribution of x-ray radiation was measured by the one-dimensional (1D) x-ray imaging system. Other diagnostic equipments including the x-ray power meter (XRPM) and the time-integrated pinhole camera were used to record time-resolved x-ray power pulse and pinhole x-ray images. Analysis shows that the fast leading edge of the local x-ray radiation pulse is of primary importance in sharpening x-ray power pulse rather than the temporal synchrony and the spatial uniformity of implosion. Experimental results indicated that the better axial imploding synchrony, the faster the increase of x-ray power for an array consisting of 32 tungsten wires of 5\mum diameter than for the others, and the higher the x-ray radiation power with maximal convergence ratio (r_0/r_1) of 10.5. A `zipper-like' effect of x-ray radiation extending from the anode to the cathode was also observed.