| Nuclear fusion is a process in which under certain condition, two light nuclei combine together to form a new heavier nucleus with consequent release of energy. It is to be noted that two fusing nuclei must come closer and closer until they react to form a single nucleus. But it is very difficult to squeeze of two nuclei to form a heavy nucleus due to the electrostatic coulomb repulsion between them. So, in order to over come this mutual electrostatic repulsion, the nuclei must have enough kinetic energy. This can be achieved by giving thermal energy to the fusing nuclei. Different schemes (like pinch effect, inertial confinement, magnetic confinement, etc.) have come out to provide necessary thermal energy to the fusing nuclei.;One of such remarkable scheme, pinch effect, was invented during the mid of last century to achieve nuclear fusion. When a large current is passed through a conducting gas medium, its setup an azimuthal magnetic field, which tends to pinch the gas at the axis, thus generating high temperature and high density conducting ionized gas (plasma). This phenomenon is called as pinch effect. The self-generated magnetic field of the pinching plasma gives necessary thermal energy for fuse of light nuclei. A theory of pinch effect was first put forward by Bennett and later improved by others. The attempts of getting pinch fusion plasma led to give birth of theta-pinch and Z-pinch devices. Though both the approaches have failed to achieve the desired goal due to various plasma instabilities and other factors, still these devices are used in laboratories to study pinch plasma and to understand the mechanisms of neutron production, ion and electron production, and X-ray emission. Various other devices like compressional Z-pinch, exploding wire Z-pinch, gas puff Z-pinch, vacuum spark, gas embedded Z-pinch, capillary discharge plasma and plasma focus based on the principle of Z-pinch have developed in different laboratories all around the world to over come some of the short comings of the Z-pinch device and these devices are not only facilitating for fundamental plasma physics research, but also for technological applications. Apprehending the importance of the pinch devices, the study on two pinch devices namely plasma focus and capillary discharge are carried out during the course of present thesis work. |
