University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF SUPERSONIC RADIATIVELY COOLED PLASMA JETS

Properties of radiatively cooled supersonic plasma jets formed by ablation of thin Al foils driven by 1.4 MA, 250 ns current pulse are presented. The jets are highly collimated with half-opening angles of similar to 2 degrees. Measurements of the flow velocity (similar to 60 km/s) and plasma temperature (similar to 15 eV) in the jet with Thomson scattering diagnostic give internal Mach number of M similar to 3, suggesting additional collimation of the jet by toroidal magnetic fields.