Overview, Status, and Plans of the Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX)

The Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) is a multi-institutional collaboration that is exploring and demonstrating the feasibility of forming imploding spherical plasma liners to reach peak pressures $\sim 0.1$~Mbar upon stagnation. The liners will be formed via merging of 30--60 dense high Mach number plasma jets ($n\sim 10^{17}$~cm$^{-3}$, $M\sim 10$--35, $v\sim 50$--70~km/s, $r_{jet}\sim 5$~cm) in spherically convergent geometry. We are aiming for two potential follow-on applications if this work is successful: (1)~assembling repetitive, macroscopic (cm and $\mu$s scale) plasmas suitable for fundamental HEDLP scientific studies and (2)~a standoff driver solution for magneto-inertial fusion. This is a staged project where scientific issues will be studied first at modest stored energies ($\sim 300$~kJ) before attempting to reach HED-relevant pressures (requiring $\sim 1.5$~MJ)\@. This poster provides an overview/status of the project and the research plan, which includes numerical/theoretical and experimental studies of plasma jet formation/acceleration, propagation/merging, liner convergence/stagnation, and laser driven beat waves for magnetizing the imploding liner.