Cylindrical Compression of Gases using Pulsed Power

The first experiments aimed at shock compressing high Z gas in a converging cylindrical geometry have been carried out on the MAGPIE generator (1.4 MA, 250 ns rise). A thin walled tube or liner (approx. 50$\mu$m wall, 10mm diameter) is filled with argon at a few mBar and subjected to the MAGPIE current pulse. Material ablated from the inner liner surface is accelerated towards the axis by the JxB force and acts on the gas inside. Experiments with no gas fill show an initially azimuthally symmetric plasma flow from the inner liner surface with a velocity of 100-150km/s. Axial laser probing and self-emission data are presented for these experiments, along with preliminary gas-fill results.