Investigating radiatively driven, magnetized plasmas with a university scale pulsed-power generator

We present first results from a novel experimental platform that is able to access physics relevant to topics including indirect-drive magnetized inertial confinement fusion, laser energy deposition, various topics in atomic physics, and laboratory astrophysics (for example, the penetration of B-fie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2022-04, Vol.29 (4)
Main Authors: Halliday, Jack W. D., Crilly, Aidan, Chittenden, Jeremy, Mancini, Roberto C., Merlini, Stefano, Rose, Steven, Russell, Danny R., Suttle, Lee G., Valenzuela-Villaseca, Vicente, Bland, Simon N., Lebedev, Sergey V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Astrophysics
Bremsstrahlung
Interferometry
Lasers
Magnetohydrodynamics
Optical imaging
Physics
Plasmas
Thomson scattering
Transport properties
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Summary:We present first results from a novel experimental platform that is able to access physics relevant to topics including indirect-drive magnetized inertial confinement fusion, laser energy deposition, various topics in atomic physics, and laboratory astrophysics (for example, the penetration of B-fields into high energy density plasmas). This platform uses the x rays from a wire array Z-pinch to irradiate a silicon target, producing an outflow of ablated plasma. The ablated plasma expands into ambient, dynamically significant B-fields ([Formula: see text]), which are supported by the current flowing through the Z-pinch. The outflows have a well-defined (quasi-1D) morphology, enabling the study of fundamental processes typically only available in more complex, integrated schemes. Experiments were fielded on the MAGPIE pulsed-power generator (1.4 MA, 240 ns rise time). On this machine, a wire array Z-pinch produces an x-ray pulse carrying a total energy of [Formula: see text] over [Formula: see text]. This equates to an average brightness temperature of around [Formula: see text] on-target.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674