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...

Ամբողջական նկարագրություն

Մատենագիտական մանրամասներ
Հիմնական հեղինակներ: Halliday, JWD, Crilly, A, Chittenden, J, Mancini, RC, Merlini, S, Rose, S, Russell, DR, Suttle, LG, Valenzuela-Villaseca, V, Bland, SN, Lebedev, SV
Ձևաչափ: Journal article
Լեզու:English
Հրապարակվել է: AIP Publishing 2022
Նկարագրություն
Ամփոփում: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 (∼5 T), 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 ∼15 kJ over ∼30 ns. This equates to an average brightness temperature of around 10 eV on-target.