MYKONOS
Mykonos Facility at Sandia National Laboratories
The Mykonos Pulsed Power Facility [1] is a 5-cavity linear transformer driver (LTD) that nominally operates at 0.85 MA output current, 400 kV output voltage, with a 10-90% current risetime of 85 ns, which enables small scale physics and engineering pulsed power experiments. Mykonos provides hands-on pulsed power experimental training along-side Sandia scientists in an environment that is more accessible than very large, pulsed power facilities (e.g., the Z facility). It is used as a testbed for magnetically-driven load physics [2], power flow plasma physics and scaling [3], and plasma diagnostic development [4-6]. Experiments can produce conditions similar to Z in a much smaller volume and with greatly improved diagnostic access. The figure shows the Mykonos facility and an end view of an open vacuum chamber with multiple lines of sight for fielding diagnostics.
[1] M. Mazarakis, et. al., “High current, 0.5-MA, fast, 100-ns, linear transformer driver experiments,” Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 12, 050401, 2009.
[2] T. M. Hutchinson, et. al., “Experimental observations of the stratified electrothermal instability with thickness greater than a skin depth,” Phys. Rev. E 97, 053208 (2018).
[3] D. Lamppa, et. al., “A diagnostically accessible scaling platform for observing electrode plasma formation in >1 MA/cm MITLs,” presented at 2023 IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., San Antonio, TX, June 2023.
[4] N. Hines, et. al, “A fiber-coupled dispersion interferometer for density measurements of pulsed power transmission line electron sheaths on Sandia’s Z machine,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 93, 113505 (2022).
[5] T. Smith et al, “Understanding electrode plasma formation on wires and thin foils via vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy of desorbed surface contaminants,” presented at IEEE Int. Conf. on Plasma Sci. (ICOPS), Santa Fe, NM, May 2023.
[6] J. Banasek et al,, “Multi-point electron density measurements using photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV),” presented at Dense Z-pinch Conf., Ann Arbor, MI, July 2023.
Diagnostics Summary
Optical Diagnostics:
Four frame pulsed laser imaging system (0.5-ns pulsed laser, 5-ns frame width)
Shadowgraphy
Schlieren
Angular Filter Refractometry
Interferometry
Avalanche photodiode and other diode detectors (time-resolved self-emission, filterable)
Four frame ICCD
Two Single-frame, 3-5ns exposure ICCD cameras
Twelve-frame, 10-ns exposure fast-framing camera (requires coordination with UNM)
Long-distance Microscope assemblies (imaging of ~1mm phenomena)
Streaked Visible Spectroscopy (SVS)
Dispersion Interferometer (in commissioning phase)
Gated visible spectroscopy (1D spatial distribution)
VUV spectroscopic system (in progress)
X-ray Diagnostics:
Filtered PIN diodes
Support for film exposure
Ultra-fast x-ray imager (UXI), expected in a few months
Current / Magnetic Field Sensors:
Standard machine diagnostics (machine current and voltage into vacuum chamber)
Standard load B-dots (current into load region)
Inductive voltage monitor (voltage into load region)
Micro-B-dots (small field sensors for localized current measurements)