AmBe Radiological Source Replacement Using Dense Plasma Focus Z-Pinch

A dense plasma focus (DPF) is a compact plasma gun that produces high energy ion beams up to several MeV through strong potential gradients formed from m=0 plasma instabilities. These ion beams can be used to replace radiological sources for a variety of applications. Americium-beryllium (AmBe) neutron sources are commonly used for oil well logging. An optimized DPF produces high energy helium ion beams of 2+ MeV which can interact with a beryllium target to produce neutrons. The alpha-Be interaction produces a neutron energy spectrum similar to the neutrons produced by the AmBe reaction. To demonstrate this concept experimentally a 2 kJ DPF is used to produce a beam of alpha particles which interacts with a beryllium target. We report on the improvements made to the DPF platform using He gas and the observation of $\sim 3.0\times10^{4}$ peak neutrons generated per shot.