A.M. Steiner

Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor experiments on a MegaAmpere linear transformer driver

Experiments have been performed on a nominal 100 ns rise time, MegaAmpere (MA)-class linear transformer driver to explore the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability in planar geometry. Plasma loads consisted of ablated 400 nm-thick, 1 cm-wide aluminum foils located between two parallel-plate return-current electrodes. Plasma acceleration was adjusted by offsetting the position of the foil (cathode) between the anode plates. Diagnostics included double-pulse, sub-ns laser shadowgraphy, and machine current B-dot loops. Experimental growth rates for MRT on both sides of the ablated aluminum plasma slab were comparable for centered-foils. The MRT growth rate was fastest (98 ns e-folding time) for the foil-offset case where there was a larger magnetic field to accelerate the plasma. Other cases showed slower growth rates with e-folding times of about ∼106 ns. An interpretation of the experimental data in terms of an analytic MRT model is attempted.

Seeded and unseeded helical modes in magnetized, non-imploding cylindrical liner-plasmas

In this research, we generated helical instability modes using unseeded and kink-seeded, non-imploding liner-plasmas at the 1 MA Linear Transformer Driver facility at the University of Michigan in order to determine the effects of externally applied, axial magnetic fields. In order to minimize the coupling of sausage and helical modes to the magneto Rayleigh-Taylor instability, the 400 nm-thick aluminum liners were placed directly around straight-cylindrical (unseeded) or threaded-cylindrical (kink-seeded) support structures to prevent implosion. The evolution of the instabilities was imaged using a combination of laser shadowgraphy and visible self-emission, collected by a 12-frame fast intensified CCD camera. With no axial magnetic field, the unseeded liners developed an azimuthally correlated m = 0 sausage instability (m is the azimuthal mode number). Applying a small external axial magnetic field of 1.1 T (compared to peak azimuthal field of 30 T) generated a smaller amplitude, helically oriented inst...

Technique for fabrication of ultrathin foils in cylindrical geometry for liner-plasma implosion experiments with sub-megaampere currents

In this work, we describe a technique for fabricating ultrathin foils in cylindrical geometry for liner-plasma implosion experiments using sub-MA currents. Liners are formed by wrapping a 400 nm, rectangular strip of aluminum foil around a dumbbell-shaped support structure with a non-conducting center rod, so that the liner dimensions are 1 cm in height, 6.55 mm in diameter, and 400 nm in thickness. The liner-plasmas are imploded by discharging ∼600 kA with ∼200 ns rise time using a 1 MA linear transformer driver, and the resulting implosions are imaged four times per shot using laser-shadowgraphy at 532 nm. This technique enables the study of plasma implosion physics, including the magneto Rayleigh-Taylor, sausage, and kink instabilities on initially solid, imploding metallic liners with university-scale pulsed power machines.

Discrete helical modes in imploding and exploding cylindrical, magnetized liners

Discrete helical modes have been experimentally observed from implosion to explosion in cylindrical, axially magnetized ultrathin foils (Bz = 0.2 – 2.0 T) using visible self-emission and laser shadowgraphy. The striation angle of the helices, ϕ, was found to increase during the implosion and decrease during the explosion, despite the large azimuthal magnetic field (>40 T). These helical striations are interpreted as discrete, non-axisymmetric eigenmodes that persist from implosion to explosion, obeying the simple relation ϕ = m/kR, where m, k, and R are the azimuthal mode number, axial wavenumber, and radius, respectively. Experimentally, we found that (a) there is only one, or at the most two, dominant unstable eigenmode, (b) there does not appear to be a sharp threshold on the axial magnetic field for the emergence of the non-axisymmetric helical modes, and (c) higher axial magnetic fields yield higher azimuthal modes.

Determination of plasma pinch time and effective current radius of double planar wire array implosions from current measurements on a 1-MA linear transformer driver

Implosions of planar wire arrays were performed on the Michigan Accelerator for Inductive Z-pinch Experiments, a linear transformer driver (LTD) at the University of Michigan. These experiments were characterized by lower than expected peak currents and significantly longer risetimes compared to studies performed on higher impedance machines. A circuit analysis showed that the load inductance has a significant impact on the current output due to the comparatively low impedance of the driver; the long risetimes were also attributed to high variability in LTD switch closing times. A circuit model accounting for these effects was employed to measure changes in load inductance as a function of time to determine plasma pinch timing and calculate a minimum effective current-carrying radius. These calculations showed good agreement with available shadowgraphy and x-ray diode measurements.

Double and Single Planar Wire Arrays on University-Scale Low-Impedance LTD Generator

Planar wire array (PWA) experiments were performed on Michigan Accelerator for Inductive Z-pinch Experiments, the University of Michigans low-impedance linear transformer driver (LTD)-driven generator (0.1 Ω, 0.5-1 MA, and 100-200 ns), for the first time. It was demonstrated that Al wire arrays [both double PWA (DPWA) and single PWA (SPWA)] can be successfully imploded at LTD generator even at the relatively low current of 0.3-0.5 MA. In particular, implosion characteristics and radiative properties of PWAs of different load configurations [for DPWA from Al and stainless steel wires with different wire diameters, interwire gaps, and interplanar gaps (IPGs) and for Al SPWA of different array widths and number of wires] were studied. The major difference from the DPWA experiments on high-impedance Zebra accelerator was in the current rise time that was influenced by the load inductance and was increased up to about 150 ns during the first campaign (and was even longer in the second campaign). The implosion dynamics of DPWAs strongly depends on the critical load parameter, the aspect ratio (the ratio of the array width to IPG) as for Al DPWAs on high-impedance Zebra, but some differences were observed, for low-aspect ratio loads in particular. Analysis of X-ray images and spectroscopy indicates that K-shell Al plasmas from Al PWAs reached the electron temperatures up to more than 450 eV and densities up to 2 × 1020 cm-3. Despite the low mass of the loads, opacity effects were observed in the most prominent K-shell Al lines almost in every shot.

Seeded Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiments on A 1-MA LTD

Summary form only given. Recent research on the 1-MA Michigan Linear Transformer Driver, MAIZE, has focused on the Magneto Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability and validation of analytic theory, developed at UM [1,2]. MRT is a concern to all forms of magnetically imploding experiments, most recently with the imploding liners anticipated in the MagLIF geometry.[3] Eliminating or mitigating MRT is crucial to success of these programs.

The electro-thermal stability of tantalum relative to aluminum and titanium in cylindrical liner ablation experiments at 550 kA

Presented are the results from the liner ablation experiments conducted at 550 kA on the Michigan Accelerator for Inductive Z-Pinch Experiments. These experiments were performed to evaluate a hypothesis that the electrothermal instability (ETI) is responsible for the seeding of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and that the cumulative growth of ETI is primarily dependent on the material-specific ratio of critical temperature to melting temperature. This ratio is lower in refractory metals (e.g., tantalum) than in non-refractory metals (e.g., aluminum or titanium). The experimental observations presented herein reveal that the plasma-vacuum interface is remarkably stable in tantalum liner ablations. This stability is particularly evident when contrasted with the observations from aluminum and titanium experiments. These results are important to various programs in pulsed-power-driven plasma physics that depend on liner implosion stability. Examples include the magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) prog...

Evolution of sausage and helical modes in magnetized thin-foil cylindrical liners driven by a Z-pinch

In this paper, we present experimental results on axially magnetized (Bz = 0.5 – 2.0 T), thin-foil (400 nm-thick) cylindrical liner-plasmas driven with ∼600 kA by the Michigan Accelerator for Inductive Z-Pinch Experiments, which is a linear transformer driver at the University of Michigan. We show that: (1) the applied axial magnetic field, irrespective of its direction (e.g., parallel or anti-parallel to the flow of current), reduces the instability amplitude for pure magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes [defined as modes devoid of the acceleration-driven magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability]; (2) axially magnetized, imploding liners (where MHD modes couple to MRT) generate m = 1 or m = 2 helical modes that persist from the implosion to the subsequent explosion stage; (3) the merging of instability structures is a mechanism that enables the appearance of an exponential instability growth rate for a longer than expected time-period; and (4) an inverse cascade in both the axial and azimuthal wavenumbers, k...

Experiments on electrothermal instability as a seed for Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability on accelerating, ablating foils

Summary form only given. The electrothermal instability (ETI) arises whenever a current-carrying material has a resistivity that depends on temperature. When resistivity, η, increases with increasing temperature, ETI causes striations to form perpendicular to the direction of current. On pulsed-power-driven, ablating metallic loads, this process can cause sections of the target to ablate earlier than the bulk material, creating a macroscopic surface perturbation on the plasma-vacuum interface. Experiments are underway on the MAIZE 1-MA linear transformer driver at the University of Michigan to study surface perturbations produced by ETI as seeding for the Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability on imploding liner [1] and accelerating foil plasmas [2]. Target foils are fabricated at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility at UM by depositing ultrathin (200 to 500 nm) coatings of aluminum or titanium on 1.5 μm Chemplex Ultra-Polyester films. Foil thicknesses are chosen to maintain the same mass between shots, and the materials are chosen to provide substantially different values of dη/dt, which impacts the growth rate of the electrothermal instability. Targets are ablated and accelerated by driving a current of 500 to 600 kA on MAIZE, and the accelerated plasmas are imaged using a 12-frame laser imaging system. Images of these plasmas are compared to determine if initial plasma interface perturbations are measurably different on targets of different materials, with the same mass, but different ETI growth rates.