Magnetized Plasma Gun Optimizations for Higher Velocity for the PLX PJMIF Project

In plasma jet driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), an array of discrete supersonic plasma jets is used to form a spherically imploding plasma liner, which then compresses a magnetized plasma target to fusion conditions[1,2]. The central target is formed by stagnating multiple magnetized plasma jets. Magnetized coaxial plasma guns have been developed by adding a bias field coil to the previously developed contoured gap plasma liner gun. We have achieved goals of magnetized hydrogen plasma jets with ~3 x 10¹⁴ cm^-3 muzzle density, 100 km/s velocity, and embedded fields of ~1 kG. Two-jet collision experiments at HyperJet indicated the need for velocities of order 140 km/s to achieve sufficient stagnation temperatures. Current gun modeling efforts are focused on increasing velocity to 140 km/s via optimization of the electrode profiles, pfn, and operating parameters. We provide an overview of the Mach2 modeling effort to achieve this increase.