Experimental investigation on charge separation on metals irradiated by Z-pinch produced X-ray

The measurement of charge separation potentials of metal targets irradiated by 107 W/cm2, 30 ns X-ray pulses produced by Z pinch on “Yang” accelerator (1 MA, 80 ns) shows kilovolt target potentials existing for 40 ns. The pinch load was tungsten wire array (3 mm in radius) consisting of 16 wires with a radius of 5 μm. The measurement also gives the distribution of potentials on the targets. The polarity of the potential indicates that the electrons move along target surfaces, not along the normal direction. The experimental results show that thermoelectric effect is the main mechanism causing this charge separation. The conclusions reveal that, electrons’ individual behavior including photoelectric effect and Compton effect dominates when targets are irradiated by