Overview of high density FRC research on FRX-L at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. The Field Reversed Experiment-Liner (FRX-L) is a plasma injector for Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) development at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The MTF project goal is to adiabatically compress a target plasma to achieve fusion conditions in a pulsed experiment in near future. FRX-L is designed to produce a field reversed configuration (FRC) plasma that will be translated and fast compressed in an imploding flux conserving metal liner. It is predicted that the FRC plasma will maintain its equilibrium topology while being adiabatically heated during compression by the fast moving aluminum metal liner To achieve this goal, it is required to produce a warm and dense FRC plasma of n /spl sim/ 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ and T/sub e/ /spl sim/ 300 eV, and sustain it for a lifetime of 10-20 /spl mu/s. Theta pinch data from several different laboratories in the past demonstrate that it is possible to create an FRC with our initial desired parameters. We have so far successfully produced dense FRC plasmas of /spl sim/ 5 /spl times/ 10/sup 16/ cm/sup -3/ with a lifetime up to 12 /spl mu/s, and sub-100 eV temperatures. The present focus is to improve on field reversed theta pinch formation of FRC and increase the main capacitor bank fields to increase the magnetic fields and energy In addition, new plasma diagnostics are being implemented including multi-point Thomson scattering system, an 8-chord visible interferometer, and an end-on bolometer array. These improvements will enable us to investigate the critical issues of plasma stability, cleanliness, and lifetime for high-density FRC plasmas relevant to MTF.