[en] A compact toroid inductively stores the energy released by a capacitor bank as it is being accelerated. This energy can be stored for a period of more than ten microseconds and then transferred to a load on a much shorter time scale. This article presents framing camera images of the radial compression of plasma trailing behind a compact toroid as the compact toroid leaves its inner electrode. This compression illustrates the basic principles of a compact toroid plasma opening switch which could be used to drive fast z pinches

[en] Measuring magnetic fields near the edge of a plasma device can be complicated by the geometric effects of the ports through which such measurements are made. The primary effect is an attenuation of the magnetic field at the probe coil due to the field expanding into the finite sized conducting well of the port. In addition, it is possible to determine the correspondence between the location of a field line as it intersects the probe coil inside the well, with its location far from the perturbation of the well. Here we explore several methods of experimentally characterizing the magnetic fields in the vicinity of the magnetic probe ports of a vacuum vessel, with the aim of improving the interpretation of magnetic measurements needed for experiments in plasma physics

[en] We present a method of analyzing a set of N time signals f_i(t) that consist of local measurements of the same physical observable taken at N sequential locations Z_i along the length of an experimental device. The result is an algorithm for reconstructing an approximation F(z,t) of the field f(z,t) in the inaccessible regions between the points of measurement. We also explore the conditions needed for this approximation to hold, and test the algorithm under a variety of conditions. We apply this method to analyze the magnetic field measurements taken on the Compact Toroid Injection eXperiment (CTIX) plasma accelerator; providing a direct means of visualizing experimental data, quantifying global properties, and benchmarking simulation

[en] We present simulation results and experimental data for the compression of a compact toroid by a conducting nozzle without a center electrode. In both simulation and experiment, the plasma flow is obstructed by even modest magnetic fields. A simple mechanism for this obstruction is suggested by our simulations. The configuration of the plasmoid's magnetic field plays a significant role in its compression. We analyze two types of plasma configurations under compression and demonstrate that the results from the simulations match those from the experiments, and that the mechanism predicts the different behaviors observed in the two cases.