Imploding liner research at the weapons laboratory

The Weapons Laboratory’s imploding plasma liner and related research are discussed. This includes direct capacitor discharge driven implosions of cylindrical foil plasma shells and of cylindrical shell gas puffs, solid liner implosions and inductive store/opening switch and plasma flow switch driven implosions. Diagnostics include current, voltage, magnetic field, X‐ray, neutron, fast photography, and radiography. Theoretical tools and predictions include circuit solver/slug models, 1D‐MHD, and 2D‐MHD codes. Experiment parameter ranges were 0.1 to 5 megajoules in initial stored energy, 1.5 to 15 megamps peak current, 0.2 to 8 microseconds current rise time, 0.5 to 12 microsecond implosion time, 2 cm/μsec to ≳100 cm/μsec implosion velocity, and, for plasma implosions, radiation pulses with up to 1 megajoule energy and 5 trillion watt power.