Advanced X-ray/EUV diagnostics for spectroscopy, imaging and polarimetry at the Nevada Terawatt Facility z-pinch plasma source

A wide variety of x-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) diagnostics are being developed to study z-pinch plasmas at the Nevada Terawatt Facility (NTF) at the University of Nevada, Reno. Time-resolved x-ray/EUV imaging and spectroscopy, polarization spectroscopy, and backlighting will be employed to measure profiles of plasma temperature, density, now, and charge state and to investigate electron distribution functions and magnetic fields. These diagnostics are used to study the NTF pinch as an x-ray / EUV source for plasma spectroscopy research and to examine the early-time evolution of a current-driven wire, the formation of a plasma sheet from the explosion and merging of wires, etc. The instruments are state-of-the-art applications of glass capillary converters (GCC), multilayer mirrors (MLM), and crystals. Devices include: a novel glass-capillary-based two-dimensional imaging spectrometer, a time-resolved x-ray spectrometer, a 5-channel crystal/MLM spectrometer ("Polychromator") with a transmission grating spectrometer, and two-channel x-ray/EUV polarimeters-spectrometers (to study simultaneously polarization of K- and L-shell radiation). A x-pinch backlighter, yielding point-projection microscopy with ns resolution is under development. X-ray convex-crystal survey spectrometers, and fast filtered x-ray diodes have observed single Ti-, Fe and W-wire z-pinches, and Ti and Fe x-pinches. The NTF x-ray yield and x-ray pulse duration depend sensitively on the wire load. There is evidence of a strong energetic electron beam with a complex spatial structure in x-pinch plasmas. This work is supported by DOE, DOD, SNL, and UNR.