Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Dielectric Coatings on Cylindrical Metal Liners Driven by a 1 MA Pulsed Power Generator

Abstract

On the 20 MA Z machine, the helical instability features that are observed in magnetized metal liner experiments were mitigated using a dielectric coating. 1In the experiments to be presented, we compare results using liners with and without a dielectric coating and without an applied axial magnetic field on the 1 MA, 100-200 ns COBRA pulsed power generator at Cornell University. 2Diagnostics used in these experiments include 4-frame extreme ultraviolet imaging, 3-frame laser imaging, and high resolution X-ray radiography. This combination of diagnostics enables investigation of plasma formation and evolution ranging from the higher density $( > 10 ^{19} /$cm $^{3})$region close to the initial liner radius to the lower density regions $\sim 0.3$mm from that radius.