Evolution of MHD Instabilities in Plasma Imploding Under Magnetic Field

Two-dimensional 3-ns-gated visible images, recorded at different times during the implosion of plasma under azimuthal magnetic field (Z-pinch), revealed ringlike instabilities followed by the development of axially and azimuthally nonuniform structures in the imploding plasma. Remarkably, the evolution in time of all structures was found to be highly repeatable in different shots, which should allow, through 3-D magnetohydrodynamics modeling, for systematically studying the development in time of these complex phenomena and correlating them with the initial plasma parameters. The data are also used to infer the time-dependent outer plasma radius and plasma radial velocities.