LAUSR

The Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) concept [Slutz et al. Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010); Gomez et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 155003 (2014)] is being studied on the Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories. MagLIF is a specific example of the more general Magnetized Inertial Fusion (MIF) approach to fusion. Numerical simulations indicate that yields approaching 100 kJ should be possible on the Z machine and much higher yields (10–1000 MJ) should be possible with pulsed power machines producing larger drive currents (45–60 MA) [Slutz et al. Phys. Plasmas 23, 022702 (2016)]. A significant advantage of MIF is that the implosions can be driven more slowly than conventional inertial fusion. In general, the efficiency of pulsed power machines increases with the current rise-time; however, we show by numerical simulation that the current and energy required to obtain a given fusion gain increase monotonically with the current rise-time over the range (10–500 ns). These results can be used to optimize...