Scaling of the K-shell line emission in transient pinch plasmas

The scaling of the K-shell line emission of intermediate-valued atomic number pinch plasmas, generated in a plasma focus device, is investigated for currents ranging between 180 kA and 310 kA a pressure range between 70 Pa and 1000 Pa and various values for the anode radius. It is shown that the transient ionization dynamics can be made visible in the scaling of the 1s-2p transition of hydrogen-like ions and the 1s(exp 2)-1s2p transition of helium-like ions. The experimental results for the resonance line scaling are in agreement with the theoretical predictions based on similarity considerations for the magnetohydrodynamics and the ionization process in the pinch plasma.