Publications

Pulsed power driven Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor experiments

Slutz, Stephen A.; Herrmann, Mark H.; Vesey, Roger A.; Sefkow, Adam B.; Sinars, Daniel S.; Rovang, Dean C.; Peterson, Kyle J.; Cuneo, M.E.

Numerical simulations indicate that significant fusion yields (>100 kJ) may be obtained by pulsed-power-driven implosions of cylindrical metal liners onto magnetized and preheated deuterium-tritium fuel. The primary physics risk to this approach is the Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability, which operates during both the acceleration and deceleration phase of the liner implosion. We have designed and performed some experiments to study the MRT during the acceleration phase, where the light fluid is purely magnetic. Results from our first series of experiments and plans for future experiments will be presented. According to simulations, an initial axial magnetic field of 10 T is compressed to >100 MG within the liner during the implosion. The magnetic pressure becomes comparable to the plasma pressure during deceleration, which could significantly affect the growth of the MRT instability at the fuel/liner interface. The MRT instability is also important in some astronomical objects such as the Crab Nebula (NGC1962). In particular, the morphological structure of the observed filaments may be determined by the ratio of the magnetic to material pressure and alignment of the magnetic field with the direction of acceleration [Hester, ApJ, 456, 225 1996]. Potential experiments to study this MRT behavior using the Z facility will be presented.