A multiwire screw pinch, a variant of a z-pinch load,
is proposed as a means for further improvement of load performance
for high-current 100-ns pulsed-power generators used for terawatt
X-ray radiation. Wires twisted along a curved load surface are
suggested to be an effective way to create an axial magnetic
field and to generate and to maintain rotation of the subsequently
formed plasma shell due to conservation of angular momentum.
A multiwire screw pinch is predicted to mitigate the growth
of the magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities, to provide
a higher pinch compression ratio and more effective X-ray
generation compared to classical z-pinch loads. A model
based on the self-consistent simulation of the dynamics of a
twisted plasma shell and the development of Rayleigh–Taylor
(R-T) perturbations on a plasma surface is proposed to
quantitatively study the effect of various physical factors
on the generation of X rays. The model provides us with a tool
for the analysis of processes that occur during the implosion
of the plasma-shell–wire-core system. We plan for the
R-T perturbations to break through the plasma shell at the moment
when the internal radius of a shell becomes zero, where the
greatest possible values of kinetic energy and X-ray radiation
power ought to be obtained. The results of numerical simulations
for the Sandia National Laboratories' Z generator are
presented and discussed.