Magnetized laboratory plasma jets: Experiment and simulation

Abstract

Experiments involving radial foils on a 1 MA, 100 ns current driver can be used to study the ablation of thin foils and liners, produce extreme conditions relevant to laboratory astrophysics, and aid in computational code validation. This research focuses on the initial ablation phase of a 20 μm Al foil (8111 alloy), in a radial configuration, driven by Cornell University's COBRA pulsed power generator. In these experiments ablated surface plasma (ASP) on the top side of the foil and a strongly collimated axial plasma jet are observed developing midway through the current rise. With experimental and computational results this work gives a detailed description of the role of the ASP in the formation of the plasma jet with and without an applied axial magnetic field. This ∼1 T field is applied by a Helmholtz-coil pair driven by a slow, 150 μs current pulse and penetrates the load hardware before arrival of the COBRA pulse. Several effects of the applied magnetic field are observed: (1) without the field extreme-ultraviolet emission from the ASP shows considerable azimuthal asymmetry while with the field the ASP develops azimuthal motion that reduces this asymmetry, (2) this azimuthal motion slows the development of the jet when the field is applied, and (3) with the magnetic field the jet becomes less collimated and has a density minimum (hollowing) on the axis. PERSEUS, an XMHD code, has qualitatively and quantitatively reproduced all these experimental observations. The differences between this XMHD and an MHD code without a Hall current and inertial effects are discussed. In addition the PERSEUS results describe effects we were not able to resolve experimentally and suggest a line of future experiments with better diagnostics.