Assessment of Mix in MagLIF Experiments using an Analytic Hotspot Model

Mix-induced radiative losses are a significant potential source of degradation in MagLIF experiments. Mix can be introduced at the time of laser heating and late in time through traditional deceleration instability growth. Here we report on analysis of experimental data where an analytic hotspot model is used to determine the stagnation pressure and mix fraction in a suite of experiments. This information is used along with knowledge of the experimental parameters to infer the contribution to the total mix fraction from the various potential sources. We show that approximately half of the mix is incurred early in time, during laser heating, and the remainder at or near stagnation. Using our model we show that the early time mix has a larger impact on performance than the late time mix.