Updates on the X-Pinch Platform and Faraday Rotation Imaging Diagnostic on the MAIZE Pulsed Power Facility

X-pinches, formed by driving intense current through the crossing of 2 or more wires, provide an excellent platform for the study of “micro-pinches” due to their propensity to generate a single micro-pinch at a predetermined location in space (i.e., where the wires cross) [1,2]. Ideally, micro-pinches are areas of run-away compression to very small radii (~1 µm) leading to pressures on the order of ~1 Gbar for currents on the order of ~0.1 MA. However, the fraction of the total current that is driven through the dense micro-pinch plasma at small radii versus that being shunted through the surrounding coronal plasma at larger radii is not well known. To allow for the study of micro-pinches and their current distribution on the 1-MA MAIZE facility, a Faraday rotation imaging diagnostic (1064 nm) [3], as well as corresponding modular X-pinch load hardware, was developed. Presented is the status of these developments including preliminary experimental results characterizing X-pinches on the MAIZE LTD.

 

[1] S.A. Pikuz et al., Plasma Phys. Rep., 41, 291 (2015);

[2] S.A. Pikuz et al., Plasma Phys. Rep., 41, 445 (2015);

[3] G.F. Swadling et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum., 85, 11E502 (2014);