Investigating the Formation and Scaling of Helical Structures in Axially Magnetized Magnetically Driven Implosions

In magnetically driven cylindrical liner implosions, azimuthally correlated structures form due to the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability. When an axial magnetic field is applied to the system, helical structures have been observed despite the azimuthal magnetic field at the time of observation being several orders of magnitude greater than the applied axial magnetic field (~kT vs ~10 T). Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) is a promising fusion concept that relies on both an applied axial magnetic field and a liner implosion to reach fusion conditions. Theory and 2D simulations suggest that MagLIF performance scales to interesting regimes at higher currents and applied magnetic fields; however, implosion instabilities may limit performance. Efforts to understand the formation and scaling of helical structures in MagLIF-like implosions are underway on the Z facility.