Experimental evidence of existence of the axial magnetic field in a plasma focus

¹ National Research Centre “ Kurchatov Institute” - Moscow, Russia
² Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research - Troitsk, Moscow oblast, Russia
³ Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion - Warsaw, Poland, EU
⁴ Czech Technical University - Prague, Czech Republic, EU

^a krauz@nfi.kiae.ru

Received: 21 March 2012
Accepted: 25 April 2012

Abstract

The magnetic field distribution substantially affects mechanisms for the generation of radiation in Z-pinches. Investigation of the axial component of the magnetic field is one of the important problems in plasma focus studies. The measurements of the B_z-component of the magnetic field on the PF-1000 facility were done with the multichannel absolutely calibrated probe both at the stage of plasma-current sheath radial compression and in the dense-pinch stage. In the compression stage, the axial component of the magnetic field reaches several kG that comprises ∼10% of the azimuthal component. The presence of the B_z field is a powerful argument in favor of the existence of closed magnetic configurations, which play an important role in the generation of neutrons.