Diagnostic systems for the nuclear fusion and plasma research in the PF-24 plasma focus laboratory at the IFJ PAN

This paper presents a set of diagnostics dedicated to PF-24 – new medium size – plasma focus (PF) device built and operated at the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN). The PF-24 can operate at energy level up to 93 kJ and charging voltage up to 40 kV. Each condenser is connected with a specially designed spark gap with a very small jitter, which ensures a high efficiency and a low current rise time. The working parameters of PF-24 generator make it a suitable tool for testing new detection systems to be used in fusion research. Four types of such detection systems are presented in this article: three diagnostic systems used to measure electric quantities (Rogowski coil, magnetic probe, capacitance probe), neutron counter based on beryllium activation, fast neutron pinhole camera based on small-area BCF-12 plastic scintillation detectors and high-speed four-frame soft X-ray camera with microchannel plate.