STABILIZED RADIATIVE Z-PINCH LOADS WITH TAILORED DENSITY PROFILES

Mitigation of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability of Z-pinch;loads im ploded from large initial radii through tailoring initial load density profiles in radial and axial directions is studied numerically. These methods could be helpful for a variety of applications of high-power Z-pinches, from producing large amounts of K-shell radiation to implod ing inertial confinement fusion pellets. Radial density tailoring is d emonstrated to delay the onset of the RT instability development at th e expense of reducing the energy available for conversion into radiati on. Axial density tailoring can fully stabilize acceleration of a frac tion of the initial load mass. For a better tradeoff between stability and radiative performance of the loads, the density profiles could be tailored in two dimensions, combining the advantages of both methods. Post-processing of the radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulation resul ts demonstrates that an appreciable K-shell argon radiation power coul d be generated with a stabilized argon load imploded by a 5 MA current from a similar to 10 cm initial radius in about 0.5 mu s. (C) 1998 Am erican Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)03809-9]