Measurement of Electron- and Ion Beam Energies and Currents in a Plasma Focus Discharge

Measurements of energetic particle beams in a plasma focus with a Mather type device are presented. Rogowski coils are used for time-resolved measurement, and solid-state nuclear track detectors for time-integrated measurement of the beams. In the upstream direction with respect to the discharge current, only the electron beam with the maximum current of several kA was detected, which was approximately one percent of the discharge current. The electron energies of the beam were spread from 0.1 to 1 MeV. In the downstream direction, two successive emissions of ions were observed. The first emission had an extremely high energy of the order of some MeV and a low beam current of less than 10 A. The second emission, the main part of the ion beam, with energies of 100–800 keV, followed the first one with a time lag of several tens of nanoseconds, and the beam current reached several tens of amperes.