X-ray Spectroscopy and Imaging of Combined X-pinches with Mo and W wires at Cornell and UNR 1MA Pulsed Power Devices.

X-pinch experiments using combined Mo and W wires were implemented on the 1MA Cornell University (CU) COBRA and University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) ZEBRA facilities. Spatially-resolved and integrated x-ray spectral data and time integrated and time-gated pinhole x-ray images accumulated in these X-pinch experiments are analyzed. In particular, x-ray L-shell spectra of Mo ions and M-shell spectra of W ions have been studied. A non-LTE collisional-radiative (CR) atomic kinetic model of Mo, successfully applied before to interpret UNR and CU x-ray spectra from Mo X-pinches, was used here to provide plasma parameters from L-shell Mo radiation from the combined (W/Mo) X-pinches. The recently developed non-LTE CR model of W based on FAC atomic structure code data has been applied to identify and diagnose the spectral features of W ions and to provide parameters of the plasma from M-shell W radiation from W/Mo X-pinches. As a result, the radiative properties of W/Mo X-pinches produced on two 1 MA university-scale pulsed power facilities are analyzed and compared. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]