Stagnation Morphology and Confinement Time in a Magnetized Liner Implosion

We report on experiments where a liquid deuterium filled magnetized liner implosion was radiographed during the stagnation process at a convergence ratio >10. The images allow determination of the hydrodynamic confinement time as well as assessment of the impact of instability growth on confinement. It is shown that the overall confinement time agrees well with 1D predictions despite the observation of significant 3D structure. The previously observed helical MRT mode[1] is present in conjunction with a large scale kink mode which forms just prior to minimum radius. The impact and interplay of these modes is discussed.

[1] T.J. Awe et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235005 (2013)