Measurement and Analysis of Continuum Radiation From a Large-Diameter Long Implosion Time Argon Gas Puff Z-Pinch at 6 MA

Time-resolved measurements of the absolute free-bound (FB) continuum spectrum emitted from a 12-cm-diameter argon gas-puff Z -pinch driven at sim!!6 -MA peak current with 220- to 260-ns implosion times are reported. A crystal spectrometer is used with silicon diode detectors to provide kiloelectronvolt spectral resolution. The energy and absolute-intensity calibration procedures for the spectrometer are described. The slope of the FB continuum is well represented by a decaying exponential spectrum with a single electron temperature from which spatially averaged, time-resolved (T_e(t)) , and time-integrated (langle T_erangle) electron temperatures are inferred. An expression for the absolute FB continuum, which takes into account recombination onto bare as well as H-like species, is presented and used to infer time-integrated spatially averaged ion densities langle n_irangle . The values of langle T_erangle and langle n_irangle are in general agreement with the values of these quantities obtained by using the conventional K-shell line-ratio method. Values of T_e(t) peak on the rise of the continuum radiation pulse and gradually decrease during the pulse. The fraction of the total energy radiated in the K-shell that resides in the FB continuum is 6%-10%, and this fraction increases with langle n_irangle . Calculated continuum spectra are in agreement with measured spectra.