Experimental Z Pinch Desig for Isotropic Plasma Shocks

The University of New Mexico is beginning an investigation into parallel wire shock formation experiments to better characterize ablation rate and shocks generated from different materials. This experiment consists of multiple parallel conducting rods driven by kA currents with 100 ns rise time. The wires will ablate, creating a corona of plasma around the core of the rod. As the current increases, the ablated material is pushed inward by the Lorentz force. The Ablation flow will meet in the middle and form a shock wave traveling outward. The shock will be very dense and very hot due to large force. Initial experiments will mainly use interferometry and X-ray spectroscopy to diagnose the effect, but later experiments will have Thompson scattering and PDV diagnostics to better characterize the velocity, temperature, and density of the shock. Information about these shock experiments will give insight to shock effects in dense plasmas and information on ablation flow for future experiments. This paper presents initial design considerations for the multiwire shock experiments.