Effect of the geometrical parameters of an X-pinch on the characteristics of the soft x-ray source

It was studied how the geometrical parameters of an X-pinch (the angle of inclination of the wires to the X-pinch vertical axis and the length of the electrode gap) affected the number of hot spots, formed in the region of the X-pinch neck, and the x-ray yield. The experiment was performed on the XPG-3 compact current pulse generator (180 kA, 180 ns). The highest values of the x-ray energy per pulse were observed when the angle of inclination of the wires to the X-pinch load vertical axis (z-axis) was 40°–45° at an electrode gap length of 6–7 mm. In these cases, the energy of the x-ray pulse in the spectral range hν = 1.5–5 keV was 1.1 ± 0.4 J. The angle of inclination of the X-pinch wires to the z-axis equal to 45° was a threshold above which the conditions for the formation of a hot spot changed significantly. It was observed that, regardless of the wire inclination angle, two hot spots formed with a high degree of probability in the neck region at the final stage of implosion.