Irradiation of Intense Characteristic X-rays from Weakly Ionized Linear Plasma

Intense quasi-monochromatic x-ray irradiation from the linear plasma target is described. The plasma x-ray generator employs a high-voltage power supply, a low-impedance coaxial transmission line, a high-voltage condenser with a capacity of about 200 nF, a turbo-molecular pump, a thyristor pulse generator as a trigger device, and a flash x-ray tube. The high-voltage main condenser is charged up to 55 kV by the power supply, and the electric charges in the condenser are discharged to the tube after triggering the cathode electrode. The x-ray tube is of a demountable triode that is connected to the turbo molecular pump with a pressure of approximately 1 mPa. As electron flows from the cathode electrode are roughly converged to the molybdenum target by the electric field in the tube, the weakly ionized plasma, which consists of metal ions and electrons, forms by the target evaporating. In the present work, the peak tube voltage was almost equal to the initial charging voltage of the main condenser, and the peak current was about 20 kA with a charging voltage of 55 kV. When the charging voltage was increased, the linear plasma x-ray source grew, and the characteristic x-ray intensities of K-series lines increased. The quite sharp lines such as hard x-ray lasers were clearly observed. The quasi-monochromatic radiography was performed by a new film-less computed radiography system.