ИСТИНА

The conversion of plasma flows kinetic energy to photon energy during collisions is one of possible ways to generate vacuum-ultraviolet and soft x-ray radiation. The possibility of such conversion was theoretically predicted in [1, 2]. Experimental research results of the pulse soft (0.1–1 keV) x-ray source with total energy yield up to 50 kJ are shown. The radiation pulse was generated during a head-on collision of two low-temperature plasma flows immersed in a longitudinal magnetic field. The plasma flows with the velocities up to 4 × 107 cm/s and total energy up to 200 kJ are formed by a coaxial accelerator operating in pulse gas puffing regime. Diagnostics of the high-temperature plasma formed by plasma flows collisions was carried out by comparing the observed intensities of the spectral lines with the results of detailed kinetic calculations made in the stationary approximation. The electron temperature for the plasma containing nitrogen ions is about 130–140 eV. The electron density obtained by interferometry measurements varied from 1016 to 1017 cm−3 . This work was financially supported by the State Corporation “Rosatom” (state contract No. N.4h.44.9B.16.1011 of 29 February 2016).