Experimental and Computational Study of Compression in a Flowing Z Pinch

To advance the fusion triple product in sheared-flow-stabilized (SFS) Z pinches, the flowing plasma must be compressed significantly beyond densities typically present in the accelerators of Zap Energy fusion research devices. The FuZE platform has recently been rebuilt and redesignated as FuZE-3 to investigate compression methods leveraging multiple electrodes to inject magnetic flux around the pinch, thereby increasing the pinch current and decreasing pinch radius. The device design and experimental campaign strategies are supported by theoretical and computational modeling efforts ranging from analysis of zero-dimensional analytical models to three-dimensional extended magnetohydrodynamic simulations.

In this presentation, we outline the configuration of the FuZE-3 device, pulsed-power drivers, and diagnostics suite, present first results from the platform, and discuss the compression regime and associated scaling of pinch pressure. Collective Thomson scattering measurements demonstrate compression of flowing plasmas by over an order of magnitude in density to over 10²⁴ per cubic meter, with evidence of compressional heating, concurrently with the presence of neutron emission from the compression region. Internal magnetic field measurements are leveraged to evaluate the distribution of the injected current in the device. Average pressures measured in the device are consistent with the presence of a flowing pinch in force balance with the confining magnetic field.