Results in Physics (Mar 2020)
Experimental measurements of high-energy photons in X-rays pulses emitted from a hundred joules plasma focus device and its interpretations
Abstract
In the present work, efforts are made to identify the presence of high energy photons in X-rays pulses, emitted from a hundred joules plasma focus device, PF-400J. Two different experiments were carried out, with the insertion of a lead piece inside the hollow anode of PF-400J and without insertion of the lead piece. A pair of two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) was mounted in the axial direction and a similar pair of PMTs was mounted in the radial direction, simultaneously. After establishing a correlation between two PMTs in each pair, one of the PMTs in both directions was blocked by a rectangular slab of the lead of thickness ~17 mm. Linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of lead was estimated using the PMTs signals. Later, the X-rays energies were interpolated for the estimated LAC values in both cases, with and without insertion of lead piece inside the hollow anode. Interpolated energies reveal the presence of 0.55–0.85 MeV photons in the X-rays pulses in the axial direction, while, in radial direction ranges 0.4–0.9 MeV, for the case without lead inserted inside the hollow anode. Insertion of the lead inside the hollow anode does not change the X-rays energies significantly, nonetheless, it increases X-rays repetition rate per hundred discharges. The presence of high energy photons in the X-rays pulses indicates the existence of relativistic electrons. To explain it, induced electric and magnetic fields were estimated using generalized Ohm’s law. We conclude that the electron acceleration mechanisms might not be the same in the axial and radial directions.
