Study of instability formation and EUV emission in thin liners driven with a compact 250 kA, 150 ns linear transformer driver

Abstract

A compact linear transformer driver, capable of producing 250 kA in 150 ns, was used to study instability formation on the surface of thin liners. In the experiments, two different materials, Cu and Ni, were used to study the effect of the liner's resistivity on formation and evolution of the instabilities. The dimensions of the liners used were 7 mm height, 1 mm radius, and 3 μm thickness. Laser probing and time resolved extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging were implemented to diagnose instability formation and growth. Time-integrated EUV spectroscopy was used to study plasma temperature and density. A constant expansion rate for the liners was observed, with similar values for both materials. Noticeable differences were found between the Cu and Ni instability growth rates. The most significant perturbation in Cu rapidly grows and saturates reaching a limiting wavelength of the order of the liner radius, while the most significant wavelength in Ni increases slowly before saturating, also at a wavelength close to the liner radius. Evidence suggests that the instability observed is the well-known m = 0 MHD instability. However, upon comparing the instability evolution of Cu and Ni, the importance of the resistivity on the seeding mechanism becomes evident. A comparison of end-on and side-on EUV emission possible indicates the formation of precursor plasma, where it has been estimated using EUV spectroscopy that the precursor plasma temperature is approximately 40 eV with ion density of order 1019 cm−3, for both materials.