Effect of soft metal gasket contacts on contact resistance, energy deposition, and plasma expansion profile in a wire array Z pinch

Soft metal gaskets (indium and silver) were used to reduce contact resistance between the wire and the electrode in an aluminum wire Z pinch by more than an order of magnitude over the best weighted contact case. Clamping a gasket over a Z-pinch wire compresses the wire to the electrode with a greater normal force than possible with wire weights. Average contact resistance was reduced from the range of $100–3000Ω$ (depending on wire weight mass) to $1–10Ω$ with soft metal gaskets. Single wire experiments (⁠$13μm$ Al 5056) on a 16 kA, 100 kV Marx bank showed an increase in light emission (97%) and emission volume (100%) of the plasma for the reduced contact resistance cases. The measured increases in plasma volume and light emission indicate greater energy deposition in the ablated wire. Additionally, dual-wire experiments showed plasma edge effects were significantly decreased in the soft metal gasket contact case. The average height of the edge effects was reduced by 51% and the width of the edge effects was increased by 40%, thus the gasket contact case provided greater axial uniformity in the plasma expansion profile of an individual wire.