Understanding the insulator conditioning process in fast plasma focus discharges

The presence of metallic deposition and oxides at the surface of insulators used in plasma focus discharges is expected to have a significant effect in the conditioning process that leads to neutrons and hard x-rays emissions. In this work, the atomic concentrations of the main elements present in these insulators are studied by energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis. Preliminary results are presented. Surface oxidation was observed after the conditioning process. A significant concentration of metallic deposition from the anode is observed after a working cycle of a thousand shots.