First experimental results of LFX for plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion

The Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) is widely considered an ideal target plasma for magneto-inertial fusion owing to its high-beta properties. To study the magnetized target in plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), we have developed LFX (Large-scale magnetized target Formation eXperiment), a specialized device for FRC formation and translation. It aims to produce a long-lifetime, large-relative-radius target FRC, and will subsequently be used to study target FRC transport as a function of relative radius. This paper reports the initial experimental results obtained with LFX: the FRC achieved a peak electron density of 6.88×1019 m−3, and an estimated temperature of 32 eV, and a reversed magnetic field of 40 G.