Diagnostics for studying the dynamics of wire array Z pinches.

The evolution of a wire array Z pinch encompasses a huge range of conditions—with spatial dimensions varying from micrometers to centimeters, densities from solid metal through plasmas of 10¹⁵–10²² e^- cm^-3, and temperatures from sub-eV to many 100 eV. We present a summary of the diagnostics developed and used at the Imperial College MAGPIE facility to study the formation and dynamics of plasma in wire array Z pinches, describing the plasma conditions for which they are useful, their various limitations, and some of the novel diagnostic techniques applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]