FRX-L: A field-reversed configuration plasma injector for magnetized target fusion.

We describe the experiment and technology leading to a target plasma for the magnetized target fusion research effort, an approach to fusion wherein a plasma with embedded magnetic fields is formed and subsequently adiabatically compressed to fusion conditions. The target plasmas under consideration, field-reversed configurations (FRCs), have the required closed-field-line topology and are translatable and compressible. Our goal is to form high-density (10[sup 17] cm[sup -3]) FRCs on the field-reversed experiment-liner (FRX-L) device, inside a 36 cm long, 6.2 cm radius theta coil, with 5 T peak magnetic field and an azimuthal electric field as high as 1 kV/cm. FRCs have been formed with an equilibrium density n[sub e]≈(1 to 2)×10[sup 16] cm[sup -3], T[sub e]+T[sub i]≈250 eV, and excluded flux ≈2 to 3 mWb. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]