Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a megaampere-class Kr-doped deuterium dense plasma focus

The addition of Kr dopant to a deuterium or deuterium–tritium dense plasma focus (DPF) is conventionally thought enhance radiative cooling the imploding sheath, resulting in tighter pinch and, under optimized conditions, increased neutron yield [M. Krishnan, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 40, 3189 (2012)]. In this work, 2D radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations are conducted DPF at peak current levels 2–3 MA range with concentrations 0%, 0.1%, and 1.0% (by volume). Fully kinetic required accurately model stagnation predict total (thermonuclear + beam target), as MHD cannot capture effects beam-target production. However, insights can be gained from following evolution bulk dynamics sheath. results show that sheath width narrows increasing concentration due radiation. Thermonuclear yields ∼109−1010 observed, which good agreement experimental data [E. N. Hahn et al., J. Appl. Phys. 128, 143302 (2020)] [N. Bennett Plasmas 24, 021702 (2017)] measure ∼1011 ∼2 ∼1% having thermonuclear origin. Scaling excess conventional ∝I4 scaling though should confirmed 3D and/or fully Kr-doped DPFs.