Operational Experience with Liquid Metal Coated Electrodes in the Century High-Power Repetitive Z-Pinch System

Century is a technology demonstration platform at Zap Energy designed for integrating high-average-power repetitive pulsed power, high duty-cycle cathodes, and liquid metal wall systems as an intermediary step between Zap’s laboratory and plant-scale fusion energy technology. [1] Century has recently been run with an updated liquid bismuth-lined anode and bismuth-wetted cathode. These new features allow for handling higher average power shot sequences, including producing 0.1-0.2 Hz repetition rate hydrogen plasma discharges. Temperature limits are controlled throughout the device via thermocouple feedback loops and bismuth coating of the electrodes is observed from high-speed camera images. Data for increased power into Century are shown and the method for cathode protection is quantified.[2] Multiple cathode experiments are presented along with a comparison to modeling.



1. M.C. Thompson et al.; “Century: Zap Energy’s 100 kW Scale Repetitive Sheared-Flow-

Stabilized Z-Pinch System with Liquid Metal Cooling,”, 2025, Accepted by Fusion Science and Technology



2. M.C. Thompson et al.; “Electrode durability and sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion energy,”, Phys. Plasmas 30, 100601 (2023)