An Experimental Platform for Pulsed-Power Driven Magnetic Reconnection

Dataset · Sun Jan 06 23:00:00 EST 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VX3EVI· OSTI ID:1880607

Hare, J. D. ^[1]; Suttle, L. G.; Lebedev, S. V.; Loureiro, N. F.; Ciardi, A.; Chittenden, J. P.; Clayson, T.; Eardley, S. J.; Garcia, C.; Halliday, J. W. D.; Robinson, T.; Smith, R. A.; Stuart, N.; Suzuki-Vidal, F.; Tubman, E. R.

---

1. OSTI

We describe a versatile pulsed-power driven platform for magnetic reconnection experiments, based on exploding wire arrays driven in parallel [Suttle, L. G. et al. PRL, 116, 225001]. This platform produces inherently magnetised plasma flows for the duration of the generator current pulse (250 ns), resulting in a long-lasting reconnection layer. The layer exists for long enough to allow evolution of complex processes such as plasmoid formation and movement to be diagnosed by a suite of high spatial and temporal resolution laser-based diagnostics. We can access a wide range of magnetic reconnection regimes by changing the wire material or moving the electrodes inside the wire arrays. We present results with aluminium and carbon wires, in which the parameters of the inflows and the layer which forms are significantly different. By moving the electrodes inside the wire arrays, we change how strongly the inflows are driven. This enables us to study both symmetric reconnection in a range of different regimes, and asymmetric reconnection.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Plasma Science and Fusion Center; Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0016215; SC0001063
• OSTI ID: 1880607
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY