Cobalt K-shell spectroscopy characterization of MagLIF implosions at Z

Mixing of Be liner with deuterium fuel in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments degrades the performance and yield of the implosion. Liner material migrates into the deuterium fuel via instabilities such as magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor, electro-thermal, and electro-choric instabilities. While diagnostics fielded in MagLIF implosions have indicated significant mixing of the Be liner into the compressed fuel column, it is difficult for MHD simulations to model this effect correctly, hence spatially resolved measurements are needed to provide guidance for and testing of for large-scale numerical simulations. To this end, in an implosion experiment performed at the Z machine of Sandia National Laboratories, a Be liner uniformly doped with 1% by weight of Co was employed to quantitatively and non-intrusively probe the characteristics of liner material mixing with the deuterium fuel at stagnation. An axially resolving spectrometer (XRS3) and three monochromatic x-ray imagers (CHEWI3) collected Co K-shell x-ray spectra and images, respectively. The challenge for the analysis and interpretation of the data is to obtain both plasma temperature and density conditions as well as the spatial distribution of the Co tracer in the burning plasma column. We present observations and preliminary results based on a simultaneous and self-consistent analysis of Co K-shell spectra and imaging data.