Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets

Journal Article · Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4872323· OSTI ID:22253055

Adams, Colin S. ^[1]; Moser, Auna L.; Dunn, John P.; Miguel Holgado, A. ^[1]; Gilmore, Mark A. ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
2. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 (United States)

We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density ∼10{sup 14} cm{sup −3}, electron temperature ≈1.4 eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity ≈40 km/s just prior to merging. The jet merging produces a few-cm-thick stagnation layer, as observed in both fast-framing camera images and multi-chord interferometer data, consistent with collisional shock formation [E. C. Merritt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 085003 (2013)].

• OSTI ID: 22253055
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ARGON
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
INTERFEROMETERS
IONIZATION
LAYERS
PLASMA JETS
PULSES