We describe a laboratory plasma physics experiment at Los Alamos NationalLaboratory that uses two merging supersonic plasma jets formed and launched bypulsed-power-driven rail guns. The jets can be formed using any atomic speciesor mixture available in a compressed-gas bottle and have the following nominalinitial parameters at the railgun nozzle exit: $n_e\approx n_i \sim 10^{16}$cm$^{-3}$, $T_e \approx T_i \approx 1.4$ eV, $V_{\rm jet}\approx 30$-100 km/s,mean charge $\bar{Z}\approx 1$, sonic Mach number $M_s\equiv V_{\rmjet}/C_s>10$, jet diameter $=5$ cm, and jet length $\approx 20$ cm. Experimentsto date have focused on the study of merging-jet dynamics and the shocks thatform as a result of the interaction, in both collisional and collisionlessregimes with respect to the inter-jet classical ion mean free path, and withand without an applied magnetic field. However, many other studies are alsopossible, as discussed in this paper.
展开▼
