Integrated Design For Magnetically-Driven Liner Inertial Fusion of Preheated and Magnetized Fuel on the Z Accelerator

Magnetically-driven implosions of metal liners containing magnetized and preheated fuel may enable significant ICF yields to be obtained on pulsed-power accelerators. Simulations of dense ($\rho$=1-5 mg/cc), axially-magnetized ($B_z$=3-30 T), and preheated ($T_i$=200-500 eV) DT fuel, driven by a pulsed-power accelerator similar to the Z machine ($I_{max}$=25-60 MA in 100-300 ns), indicate Gbar pressures and high yields ($E_{fus}$=100s kJ-10s MJ) may be feasible. Reduced heat conduction losses and alpha particle trapping can be provided by $B_z$ flux compression, and the fuel $\rho$$R$ ignition requirement is replaced by one for $B_z$$R$. Preheating the fuel prior to compression permits access to ignition temperatures without large convergence ratios or implosion velocities. Integrated simulations allow realistic designs for Z experiments ($I_{max}$=27 MA) with fuel preheat provided by the ZBL laser ($E_{las}$=2-6 kJ). Physics issues include laser deposition timing, evolution of thermal energy and $B_z$ field, magneto-RT instability growth, electrode and laser entrance hole end effects, and anisotropic conductivity and fusion burn in the $B_z$ field. Fusion yields on the order of the absorbed target energy may be possible on Z+ZBL, and high-gain designs using $I_{max}$=60 MA are studied.