"Using Magnetic Fields to Create and Control High Energy Density Matter", Mark Herrmann, Sandia National Laboratory

The recently refurbished Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories is the world’s largest pulsed power driver. Z can efficiently deliver currents as large as 26 Million Amperes to centimeter scale loads. These large currents create large magnetic fields that, in turn, create very large pressures in conducting materials. These very large pressures have been used to create unique conditions for high energy density science experiments for a variety of applications. Recently, we have been exploring the use of very strong magnetic fields to significantly relax the requirements for achieving inertial confinement fusion self heating1. The magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) concept relies on a cylindrically imploding liner, an axial magnetic field, and a laser heated fuel region. We hope to achieve significant fusion yield on the Z facility with this concept. Initial experiments assessing the growth of the Magneto-Rayleigh Taylor instabil- ity are promising and recent calculational work has identified an approach to achieving high gain with this concept.