title: Technique for fabrication of ultrathin foils in cylindrical geometry for liner-plasma implosion experiments with sub-megaampere currents.
abstract: In this work, we describe a technique for fabricating ultrathin foils in cylindrical geometry for liner-plasma implosion experiments using sub-MA currents. Liners are formed by wrapping a 400 nm, rectangular strip of aluminum foil around a dumbbell-shaped support structure with a non-conducting center rod, so that the liner dimensions are 1 cm in height, 6.55 mm in diameter, and 400 nm in thickness. The liner-plasmas are imploded by discharging ∼600 kA with ∼200 ns rise time using a 1 MA linear transformer driver, and the resulting implosions are imaged four times per shot using laser-shadowgraphy at 532 nm. This technique enables the study of plasma implosion physics, including the magneto Rayleigh-Taylor, sausage, and kink instabilities on initially solid, imploding metallic liners with university-scale pulsed power machines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Yager-Elorriaga
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gilgenbach