Current loss experiments of a conical MITL and PHC system on a megaampere-class LTD module

A series of current transport experiments of a conical magnetically insulated transmission line (MITL) and a single post-hole convolute (PHC) had been done on a 12-stage linear transformer driver (LTD). The LTD produced a current with a rise time of about 120 ns and a peak varying from 0.5 to 0.8 MA depending on the terminated connection loads. The conical MITL was designed with a constant gap distance of 8 mm, which was equivalent to the MITL segments that are close to the PHC locations in the multi-level conical MITL in tens of megaampere current drivers. A single PHC was also designed to operate at conditions close to those fielded on tens of MA current drivers such as the Z machine. The experiment results indicated that there was almost no current loss along the constant-gap MITL before the peak current even the MITL figure of merit, i.e., E/cB varied from 0.1 to 1. However, the time when current trails appeared gradually advanced. The effects of the geometric sizes on the current transport efficiency of a single PHC were studied. It was indicated that the current transport efficiency of the single PHC was considerable high while the gap distance is larger than 6 mm. Whereas the PHC current loss was increased to about 30% when the gap is 3 mm. The dynamic impedance of the single PHC was obtained. During the pulse, as the plasma diffused, the convolute shunt impedance rapidly decreased, which was consistent with the known mechanism.