Development of a novel dual view, four frame imaging system and other diagnostics to study electrothermal instabilities on Mykonos*

The electrothermal instability (ETI) is a Joule heating-driven instability that can initiate in solid liner-driven fusion targets, generating azimuthally correlated (striated) temperature and density perturbations. These perturbations may seed the magneto Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability and can limit stagnation pressure and implosion uniformity. These experiments will observe ETI growth from diamond-turned, 99.999{\%} pure aluminum rods in a z-pinch configuration by monitoring characterized ``engineered'' defects machined into the rod surface. Experiments will be conducted on the \textasciitilde 1 MA Mykonos driver at Sandia National Laboratories. A novel multi-camera splitter system will be used to simultaneously image these scaled defect patterns on opposing sides of the target, in order to examine visible-light emission from the surface. Laser shadowgraphy and interferometry diagnostics are also being developed and will be compared to 3D-MHD simulations.