Scyllacita—Compact High Voltage Theta Pinch Machine

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Abstract
A high voltage theta pinch (Scyllacita) has been developed especially for application to experiments with explosively compressed theta pinches. The system is relatively economical, simple, and compact. Twenty‐four 14 μF, 20 kV, low inductance capacitors (60 kJ) are divided into two banks. Each capacitor has a 3 element spark gap (trigatron) mounted directly on it. Twelve low inductance cables from each capacitor spark gap combination are connected to a mix header which puts the two banks of capacitors in series when the gaps fire. One‐hundred low inductance cables connect the mix header to a collector plate and thus to the 8 cm diam, 24 cm long load coil. The source inductance (coil terminals shorted) is 17 nH. Both mirror coils and straight bore coils have been used. With the straight bore coil, the full period of oscillation is 11.7 μsec and the efficiency of energy transfer to the coil is 59%. In second half‐cycle operation at 100 mTorr filling pressure with the banks charged to 18 kV, over 107 neutrons per discharge are produced in either mirror or straight coil.

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