Abstract and subjects
The Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) at Los Alamos National Laboratory is studying plasma-jet driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), an innovative fusion approach in which a magnetized target plasma is compressed and heated by a spherically imploding plasma liner. We report on experimental efforts towards target formation experiments using colliding magnetized plasma jets, formed by coaxial plasma guns with applied field. In the collision of high-beta magnetized jets, we observe aspects of collisional and collisionless plasma dynamics during the jet collision and stagnation, informed by Doppler ion spectroscopy measurements of ion bulk flow and thermalization. Implications for future integrated liner-on-target compression experiments are presented. We also describe a range of kinetic and fluid modeling efforts studying both the near-term experimental scale as well as scaling of the broader PJMIF concept.