Scaling of pulsed power produced convergent shockwaves in insulators – kA to MA

The pulsed power driven explosion of cylindrical arrays of wires in water has been used for the past decade to produce high speed, convergent shockwaves. On axis, the pressures that these shockwaves are expected to produce, which regularly stretch into the Mbar regime, should result in warm dense matter conditions being created, even with relatively small pulsed power drivers.

Previously most experimental research has utilised drives with currents ~100-500kA, but this has recently expanded to include multi-mega ampere drives at one extreme, and currents as low as 30kA at the other. Coupled with either high resolution laser backlighting or the incredible multi-frame radiography capabilities of a 3^rd generation synchrotron, we are now able to explore how the wire explosion technique scales with current, risetime and insulator material. Furthermore, new experiments have enabled the first imaging (by radiography) of the shockwaves created in spherical implosion geometries. This data will be used to plan a new campaign of experiments designed to create extreme pressures with the 8-10MA drive currents available on the M3 facility at First Light Fusion.