The Atlas high-energy density physics project

Abstract

Atlas is a pulsed-power facility under development at Los Alamos National Laboratory to drive high-energy density experiments. Atlas will be operational in the summer of 2000 and is optimized for the study of dynamic material properties, hydrodynamics, and dense plasmas under extreme conditions. Atlas is designed to implode heavy-liner loads in a z-pinch configuration. The peak current of 30 MA is delivered in 4μs. A typical Atlas liner is a 47-gram-aluminum cylinder with ∼4-cm radius and 4-cm length. Three to five MJ of kinetic energy will be delivered to the load. Using composite layers and a variety of interior target designs, a wide variety of experiments in ∼cm3 volumes will be performed. Atlas applications, machine design, and the status of the project are reviewed.