The effect of surface roughness and structure on subsequent magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth in beryllium liner implosions on Z

Summary form only given. Sandia is investigating a new magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) concept that uses cylindrical Be or Al liners to compress magnetized and preheated fusion fuel [1]. As part of this work, we have been studying the growth of instabilities in initially solid liners driven with 20–24 MA, 100-ns current pulses on the Z pulsed power facility [2–5]. The magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability [2,3] in particular can disrupt the plasma liner during its implosion.