Browsing by Author "Muñoz-Cordovez, Gonzalo"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Outflows from tungsten conical wire arrays. Characterization and applications
    (2024) Muñoz-Cordovez, Gonzalo; Veloso Espinosa, Felipe Eduardo; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Facultad de Física
    A tungsten conical wire array is used as load in the Llampudken pulsed power generator(∼400 kA in ∼350 ns) to study the outflows produced by it. At pressures of 10 −4 Torrthe dynamics of the wire array is probe by UV/XUV imaging and laser schlieren andinterferometry. These diagnostics show the expulsion of a dense plasma jet (n e = 3 × 10 24m −3 ) of a couple of centimeters in the axial direction above the anode. This plasma jet havevelocities between 10 4 − 10 5 m/s and its dimensionless parameters are computed in orderto compare the experimentally produced plasma jet with the astronomically producedones. At pressures that varies from 10 −5 Torr to 10 −2 Torr the upwards axial emission ofcharged particles is study using negatively biased Faraday cups. At 10 −5 Torr only ionsare detected by the cups but from 10 −4 Torr to 10 −2 Torr the detection of both electronsand ions moving together in the same direction is observed due to the ionization of thebackground gas. Velocity computed for the electrons and ions is in the order of 10 6 m/simplying MeV ions. Finally, the interaction of these outflows with stationary targets isstudy by placing silicon targets at different heights above the conical wire array. Resultsshow that visible damage over the target was observed from 10 cm to 21 cm above thearray where two main damages are appreciated. For targets located closer to the arraymainly micro-pores are observed but for targets located farther from the array stripes-likeformations are appreciated. These damages indicate that the silicon target boiled and wasfastly heated by the conical wire array outflows. Detail measurements of these outflowsand the damages produced on the silicon targets are shown an discussed in this thesis.