Initial design for an experimental investigation of strongly coupled plasma behavior in the Atlas facility

Summary form only given. Atlas is a high current (/spl sim/30 MA peak, with a current risetime /spl sim/4.5 /spl mu/sec), high energy (E/sub stored/=24 MJ, E/sub load/=3-6 MJ), pulsed power facility which is being constructed at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a scheduled completion date in the year 2000. When operational, this facility will provide a platform for experiments in high pressure shocks (>20 Mbar), adiabatic compression (/spl rho///spl rho//sub 0/>5, P>10 Mbar), high magnetic fields (/spl sim/2000 T), high strain and strain rates (/spl epsiv/>200%, d/spl epsiv//dt/spl sim/10/sup 4/ to 10/sup 6/ s/sup -1/), hydrodynamic instabilities of materials in turbulent regimes, magnetized target fusion, equation of state, and strongly coupled plasmas. For the strongly coupled plasma experiments, an auxiliary capacitor bank will be used to generate a moderate density (