Experimental Aspects of MagLIF Pre-Heat Studies

Dedicated experiments in the Pecos target area at Sandia National Laboratories investigate and optimize the pre-heat phase of Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF). The primary observables are energy deposition of the Z-Beamlet laser into deuterium gas, X-ray emission from the gas, and the analysis of backscattered light as indication of laser plasma instabilities (LPI). The latter is observed for stimulated Brillouin scatter and stimulated Raman scatter. Over the course of the last two years, SBS and SRS were significantly reduced while simultaneously doubling the gas density. Increased density and coupling of the laser energy to the gas enables higher neutron yield and is expected to provide more stability for the implosion phase of MagLIF. The presentation will describe the instrumentation suite at Pecos and the various milestones on the way from the initial, high LPI preheat scenario to the latest one, which enabled the highest yields for MagLIF experiments to date.