Measurements of Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Growth during the Implosion of Initially Solid Al Tubes Driven by the 20-MA, 100-ns Z Facility

The first controlled experiments measuring the growth of the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability in fast (similar to 100 ns) Z-pinch plasmas are reported. Sinusoidal perturbations on the surface of an initially solid Al tube (liner) with wavelengths of 25-400 mu m were used to seed the instability. Radiographs with 15 mu m resolution captured the evolution of the outer liner surface. Comparisons with numerical radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations show remarkably good agreement down to 50 mu m wavelengths.