Scaling of Pressure with Intensity in Laser-Driven Shocks and Effects of Hot X-Ray Preheat

Journal Article · Fri Jul 28 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2263589· OSTI ID:20875706

Colvin, Jeffrey D; Kalantar, Daniel H ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-356, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)

To drive shocks into solids with a laser we either illuminate the material directly, or to get higher pressures, illuminate a plastic ablator that overlays the material of interest. In both cases the illumination intensity is low, <<1013 W/cm2, compared to that for traditional laser fusion targets. In this regime, the laser beam creates and interacts with a collisional, rather than a collisionless, plasma. We present scaling relationships for shock pressure with intensity derived from simulations for this low-intensity collisional plasma regime. In addition, sometimes the plastic-ablator targets have a thin flash-coating of Al on the plastic surface as a shine-through barrier; this Al layer can be a source of hot x-ray preheat. We discuss how the preheat affects the shock pressure, with application to simulating VISAR measurements from experiments conducted on various lasers on shock compression of Fe.

• OSTI ID: 20875706
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 845; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ION COLLISIONS
IRON
LASER RADIATION
LAYERS
PLASMA PRODUCTION
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASTICS
SHOCK WAVES
SOLIDS
SURFACES
X RADIATION