Generation of powerful soft x-ray pulses with nanosecond increase of megaampere current through a metal rod

In experiments on the implosion of foil liners with a nanosecond increase in megaampere current through the liner [S. A. Sorokin, Plasma Phys. Rep. 43, 542–546 (2017)], it was found that the plasma in a thin skin layer on the liner surface is heated to a temperature of about 100 eV or more. The intensity of the thermal x-ray pulse accompanying the surface plasma heating is comparable to the radiation intensity during the subsequent stagnation of the liner plasma. That is, with a fast (1–3 ns) increase in megaampere current, a simple current generator load in the form of a solid cylindrical rod can be used to generate powerful x-ray pulses. In this work, diameter-scaling experiments with nanosecond switching of current on aluminum, copper, and tungsten rods with diameters of 0.3–3.0 mm were performed. The aim of the experiments was to determine the trends in the x-ray power and total yield with changes in the diameter of the rods.