Eur. Phys. J. D 21, 97-100 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00183-2

Relativistic electron beams detection in a dense plasma focus

¹ Instituto de Física Arroyo Seco, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires and CONICET, Pinto 399, 7000 Tandil, Argentina
² Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Funes 3350, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina

Corresponding author: ^a pouzo@exa.unicen.edu.ar

Received: 28 February 2002
Revised: 7 May 2002
Published online: 24 September 2002

Abstract

Fast electron beams into a hollow anode of a small plasma focus machine (2 kJ, 4 μF) were measured. The diagnostic method designed for this purpose is founded in a small Rogowski coil introduced into a cavity performed in the anode. By means of this, electron beam pulses of about 10 ns width generated in the plasma focus are detected. Simultaneously, hard X-ray signals obtained from a scintillator-photomultiplier system are registered. The electron beam energy was measured through the time-of-flight of the electrons between probe and anode top. The beams are found to be relativistic and its energy is into the range of hard X-rays energy. An analysis of signal intensities and relative delays for three hundred shots are here presented.