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A detailed study of the radiative precursor that develops ahead of converging blast waves in gas-filled cylindrical liner z-pinch experiments is presented. The experiment is capable of magnetically driving 20 km s À1 blast waves through gases of densities of the order 10 À5 g cm À3 (see Burdiak et al. [High Energy Density Phys. 9(1), 52-62 (2013)] for a thorough description). Data were collected for Ne, Ar, and Xe gas-fills. The geometry of the setup allows a determination of the plasma parameters both in the precursor and across the shock, along a nominally uniform line of sight that is perpendicular to the propagation of the shock waves. Radiation from the shock was able to excite NeI, ArII, and XeII/XeIII precursor spectral features. It is shown that the combination of interferometry and optical spectroscopy data is inconsistent with upstream plasmas being in LTE. Specifically, electron density gradients do not correspond to any apparent temperature change in the emission spectra. Experimental data are compared to 1D radiation hydrodynamics HELIOS-CR simulations and to PrismSPECT atomic physics calculations to assist in a physical interpretation of the observations. We show that upstream plasma is likely in the process of being radiatively heated and that the emission from a small percentage of ionised atoms within a cool background plasma dominates the emission spectra. Experiments were carried out on the MAGPIE and COBRA pulsed-power facilities at Imperial College London and Cornell University, respectively. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

Awe et al. found on the 20 MA Z machine [Acta Phys. Pol. A 115, 956 (2009)] that applying an externally generated axial magnetic field to an imploding liner leads to a helical pattern in the liner when viewed with soft x-ray radiography ([Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235005 (2013)] and [Phys. Plasmas 21, 056303 (2014)]). Here, we show that this phenomenon is also observed in extreme ultraviolet self-emission images of 10 mm long cylindrical metal liners having varying diameters and varying wall thicknesses on a 1 MA, 100–200 ns pulsed power generator. The magnetic field in these experiments is created using either twisted return current wires positioned close to the liner, generating a time-varying Bz, or a Helmholtz coil, generating a steady-state Bz.

X pinches are well known to produce very small, dense plasma pinches (“hot spots”) that emit sub-nanosecond bursts of 1–8 keV radiation. Hard X-ray radiation in the range from 8 to 300 keV or more is also emitted, and only a small portion of which is associated with the X-pinch hot spot. In hybrid X-pinches (HXP), the  10 ns hard X-ray pulse is terminated by fast closure of the gap between the two conical electrodes of the HXP by rapidly expanding electrode plasmas. The temporal, spectral, and spatial properties of this higher energy radiation have been studied. This radiation was used for point-projection imaging with magnification between 1.5 and 6, and spatial resolution of 20–100 μm was demonstrated.

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