2012/03/13 by Scott Hsu, T. J. Awe, Samuel Brockington +8 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Plasma #Nuclear engineering #Fusion power #Dense plasma focus #Plasma diagnostics #Physics #Inertial confinement fusion #Materials science #Aerospace engineering #Nuclear physics
paper · doi:10.1109/tps.2012.2186829
openalex publication_date 2012/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
Spherically imploding plasma liners formed by merging an array of high Mach number plasma jets are a proposed standoff driver for magnetoinertial fusion (MIF). This paper gives an updated concept-level overview of plasma liner MIF, including advanced notions such as standoff methods for forming and magnetizing the fuel target and liner shaping to optimize dwell time. Results from related 1-D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of targetless plasma liner implosions are summarized along with new analysis on the efficiency of conversion of the initial liner kinetic energy to stagnation thermal energy. The plasma liner experiment (PLX), a multi-institutional collaboration led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, plans to explore the feasibility of forming spherically imploding plasma liners via 30 merging plasma jets. In the near term, with modest pulsed power stored energy of ≲1.5 MJ, PLX is focusing on the generation of centimeter-, microsecond-, and megabar-scale plasmas for the fundamental study of high energy density laboratory plasmas. In the longer term, PLX can enable a research and development path to plasma liner MIF ultimately requiring compressing magnetized fusion fuel to ≳100 Mbar.