Comparison of a copper foil to a copper wire-array Z pinch at 18 MA

Results from the first solid foil implosion on the 18-MA Z accelerator are reported. The foil implosion is compared to a 300-wire-array implosion with the same material and the same diameter, height, and total mass. Though both the foil and the array produced comparable x-ray yields, the array’s radiation burst was twice as powerful and half as long as the foil’s. These data along with x-ray backlighting images and inductance measurements suggest that the foil implosion was more unstable than the wire-array implosion.