A drawing of MAGPIE. You can see the four Marx banks in red around the edge, with the four pulse forming lines going inwards and upwards to the chamber, where the load sits.
Inside the shielding is the vacuum chamber. All the energy in MAGPIE is focused into this space. The windows around the edge provide access for lasers and other diagnostics.
A view through some of the lenses we use in our laser systems.
Another view of the chamber. The Iron Curtain is the heavy steel door we slide into place before firing MAGPIE, completing the x-ray shielding that protects us below.
The lid of the chamber has more access points for diagnostics. We lift it off with a crane when we want to place a new load inside, which we have to do every shot – the loads are always destroyed!
Copyright owned by Layton Thompson.
Full view of the vertical transmission line (the thick cylinder) tapering to the vacuum chamber (the thinner vertical cylinder) with me for scale.
The MAGPIE chamber, on the upper floor of MAGPIE. It’s surrounded by diagnostic equipment – lenses and mirrors for the lasers along with wires and cable and vacuum hardware. I don’t have pictures of the inside yet.
