Studies of preheat-induced mix in MagLIF targets

Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) is an inertial confinement fusion concept that preheats a magnetized fuel prior to compression and has the potential to reach high thermonuclear fusion yields. During the laser preheating stage, the higher-density liner material can blow off the liner wall and mix into the lower-density D₂ fuel via x-ray ablation or impact from the late-time blast wave. This can lead to large radiative losses over the long compression time scales that can significantly reduce fusion yield. We plan to show preliminary data analysis from a scaled MagLIF experiment executed on Omega to characterize and diagnose the mixing of material from the inner surface of the target in the preheating stage. We will show density profiles of the liner material and an assessment of possible mixing with the D₂ fuel as the laser-generated x-rays and blast wave interact with the liner.