Advanced Surface Physics Model for Power Flowsimulations of the Z Accelerator

The dynamics of electrode heating, electron transport, and surface contaminant plasma evolution have been studied numerically in a series of publications.1-4 These dynamics can lead to the shunting of current before reaching the Z-pinch load, thus degrading load performance. The impact of metal electrode material in the inner Magnetically Insulated Transmission Line (MITL) near the load could also be significant particularly for next generation high current accelerators. The combined densities of contaminant and electrode plasma can easily exceed 10 ¹⁹ cm-3 with >> Mega-Gauss magnetic fields.