Power Balance Studies Millimeter Wave and Infrared Radiometry

The behavior at stagnation of magnetized pinch plasmas, including gas puff Z-pinches, as well as X-pinches, is thought to be strongly influenced by the partition of energy during the early time implosion phase. In particular, the partition of energy in thermal, magnetic field, radiation, and turbulent kinetic energy channels may be of direct consequence to plasma performance at stagnation – e.g. in fusion and X-ray source applications. In order to further elucidate early time energy partition, a set of millimeter wave (mmW) and infrared (IR) radiometers have been fielded both on gas puff plasmas on the 1 MA COBRA generator at Cornell University, as well as on X-pinch plasmas on the ~ 100 kA LoboLTD generator at the University of New Mexico (UNM). The IR channels operate at 1100,1350, and 1550 nm, and the mmW channels are at 10, 94, and 119 GHz.. Comparisons will be made with the radiated power at early times during the pinch implosion between the X-pinch and Z-pinch systems under various operating parameters.The design of the radiometer channels, their calibration, and comparisons of results will be discussed.