“…Wire array z-pinch plasmas are powerful and efficient soft x-ray radiators used for research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), radiation physics, laboratory astrophysics and other high energy density sciences [1,2]. The phases of the pinch are: initial ablation, melting and vaporization of the wires, coronal plasma expansion, merging of the individual plasmas, a subsequent implosion exhibiting Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, and finally, the stagnation phase (pinch) [3].…”