Developing a Pre-Heat Platform for MagLIF with Z-Beamlet

Sandia's Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion Program has put one of the main objectives towards developing standard platform for a `preconditioned' target, providing a scenario that reproducibly delivers pre-heated fuel. \newline The majority of this effort has been done at the ``Pecos'' Target Area using Sandia's Z-Beamlet laser to provide the pre-heat energy, just like for fully integrated MagLIF experiments. The nature and magnitude of Laser-Plasma-Instabilities during this process are particularly important, since they can lead to less energy in the fuel (backscatter processes) or to energy deposition in less desirable areas (filamentation/scatter). We present results for Stimulated Brillouin Backscatter and forward scatter, and show the effect of the laser pulse shape to laser-entrance-hole transmission and blast wave propagation in the fuel.