Temperature Diagnostics of a Z-Pinch Plasma Using Calculations of the Spectral Brightness of X-Ray Radiation in a Large Interval of Radiation Energies

Abstract

We elaborate a modern approach to the temperature diagnostics of a Z-pinch plasma. The approach is based on quantum-mechanical calculations of spectral brightness for X-ray radiation performed in a large interval of the photon energy for several temperatures and densities. In a large interval of the photon energy, a range can be found where the spectral brightness is highly sensitive to the temperature variation. This fact enables temperature diagnostics without complicated analysis of the spectral-line shape used in traditional diagnostic methods. In our calculations of the spectral brightness of X-ray radiation, we use a theoretical model known as the ion model of a plasma. We discuss important features of this model along with the other theoretical models used for calculating the radiative properties of the plasma. We calculate the spectral brightness of X-ray radiation for molybdenum plasma at temperatures of 1 and 1.2 keV and plasma densities of 1 and 2 g/cm³ and find the range of X-ray radiation energies that can be used for the temperature diagnostics.