DrJergus Strucka

I am a scientist at the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser. I am interested in the following topics:

• High current phenomena, for example development of electrothermal instability from resistive defects to large scale correlated structures that prevent uniform compression in current-driven inertial confinement fusion schemes such as Magnetized Liner Fusion. Here, the main collaborators are the Sandia National Laboratories and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

• Shock-induced hydrodynamic instabilities and their mitigation; in particular using AI to develop novel complex mitigation techniques, for example passive stabilization of interfaces by modification of the bulk. This work is done in collaboration with the AI for Nuclear Security programme at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

• Multi-MHz imaging of fluid dynamics phenomena such as jetting in shaped charges, interface distortion, and interaction of granular materials in shock-driven liquid environment. Most of this work is performed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron.

• Magnetized dynamics; interest in how magnetic fields diffuse, or equivalently how electric currents re-distribute, during cylindrically symmetric implosions of liners and pinches. Of particular interest is development of novel X-ray diagnostics at XFELs to probe the magnetic field distribution within small and tight hotspots of, for example, X-pinches. This work is done pre-dominantly at Imperial College and with MAGPIE, however, it will certainly be done at an XFEL one day when we are confident enough that it will yield good results.