Conveners
4.6 Fast Z Pinches II
- Farhat Beg (University of California, Sandiego)
The conditions and dynamics of neon gas-puff z-pinch plasmas during the implosion phase are studied on the COBRA pulsed power generator (current rise time of ~240 ns and ~0.9 MA peak current). A 526.5 nm, 10 J, 2.2 ns Thomson scattering diagnostic laser enables probing of the plasma conditions during these implosions with both spatial and temporal resolution. Collective scattering spectral...
COBRA, the 1 million ampere pulsed power facility at Cornell University, enables detailed investigation into magnetically driven implosions of structured cylindrical gas-puff z-pinches thanks to an extensive suite of diagnostics. Such implosions, without an applied axial magnetic field, hold promise as intense x-ray or neutron sources and, with an applied magnetic field, may be of interest for...
Liner implosions are susceptible to instabilities like the magneto Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability. There are several ways to mitigate instabilities such as MRT. One such method uses the rotating magnetic field of a dynamic screw pinch (DSP), which can be generated using a helical return-current structure. The DSP method has been examined in simulation [1] and now in experiment as well. ...
The dynamics of Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF)1, a new and promising approach to pulsed power fusion, are presently under detailed study at Sandia National Laboratories. Alongside this, a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the specific liner design geometry in the MagLIF system on liner initiation is underway in the academic community.
Recent work utilizing high voltage...
With the development of pulse power technology, the fast Z-pinch shows the potential of direct drive inertial confinement fusion, such as the magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) concept. The magneto Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability is one of the most negative effects on the liner integrity and the implosion quality, and the level of MRT instability growth is significantly determined by...
The thin aluminum liners with an aspect ratio R/Dr >> 1 have been imploded on the primary test stand (PTS) facility, where R is the outer radius of the liner and Dr is the thickness. The x-ray self-emission images present azimuthally correlated perturbations in the liner implosions. The experiments show that at −10 ns before the stagnation, the wavelengths of perturbation are about 0.93 mm and...
Magnetic fields play an important role in many HEDP regimes, however, scaling of astrophysical relevant phenomena to a laboratory setting requires the generation of strong magnetic fields (>5T) that can match the high energies achieved by the laser plasmas commonly used in these experiments. Besides the engineering challenges of fabricating a powerful electromagnet design, suitable for...
