MAGPIE

The Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments (MAGPIE)

The research done in MAGPIE includes the physics of wire array Z-pinches as an X-ray source, dynamics of gas-filled liners for magnetised liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) and the formation of supersonic, magnetised plasma flows and shocks for laboratory astrophysics.

MAGPIE is part of the Plasma Physics group at Imperial College London and is the largest University-based pulsed-power generator, capable of delivering an electrical current pulse of ~1.4 Million Amperes in ~250 nanoseconds. This is equivalent to a Tera-Watt (~10¹² W) of electrical power. The current heats and ionises a material to produce a dense plasma, and at the same time it generates a strong magnetic field that sets the initial dynamics of the plasma.