An experimental investigation of the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability using thin foils driven by A1-MA Ltd

Foils may soon become necessary to achieve the required mass for higher current-driven x-ray sources. They may also offer useful options for x-ray pulse shaping and as imploding liners for magnetized target fusion. This paper reports our latest design and experimental progress on the dominant instability, the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability (MRT). Planar Al foils as thin as 400 nm driven by the 1-MA linear transformer driver (LTD), MAIZE, at the University of Michigan, are used as the dynamic loads for this investigation. Sub-nanosecond laser backlighting and spectroscopy diagnostic deployment, transmission line and load hardware, inductance considerations, and experimental progress will be presented along with MRT theory.