Experimental evaluation of protons emission from a plasma focus device

Solid state nuclear track detectors have been used for measuring axially emitted protons from a 2.2-kJ energy plasma focus device. The flux of the protons emerging out from the pinched plasma column of the plasma focus device has been found to saturate the CR-39 detectors. Aluminum filters have been used to avoid the saturation effect. By varying the aluminum filter thickness as well as the etching time of CR-39 detectors, proton tracks have been analyzed. Proton energy above 200 keV to about 1 MeV has been measured by using different thicknesses of aluminum filters. On increasing the etching hours, the most probable track diameter is found to be shifted from lower to higher values. The track number density decreases on increase of the filter thickness, whereas the track diameters increase linearly with respect to the etching time.