Observation of Rayleigh{endash}Taylor growth to short wavelengths on Nike

Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1999 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.873201· OSTI ID:295521

Pawley, C J; Bodner, S E; Dahlburg, J P; Obenschain, S P; Schmitt, A J; Sethian, J D; Sullivan, C A ^[1]; Gardner, J H ^[2]; Aglitskiy, Y; Chan, Y; Lehecka, T ^[3]

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1. Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC 20375 (United States)
2. Laboratory for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC 20375 (United States)
3. Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Virginia 22310 (United States)

The uniform and smooth focal profile of the Nike KrF laser [S. Obenschain {ital et al.}, Phys. Plasmas {bold 3}, 2098 (1996)] was used to ablatively accelerate 40 {mu}m thick polystyrene planar targets with pulse shaping to minimize shock heating of the compressed material. The foils had imposed small-amplitude sinusoidal wave perturbations of 60, 30, 20, and 12.5 {mu}m wavelength. The shortest wavelength is near the ablative stabilization cutoff for Rayleigh{endash}Taylor growth. Modification of the saturated wave structure due to random laser imprint was observed. Excellent agreement was found between the two-dimensional simulations and experimental data for most cases where the laser imprint was not dominant. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Institute of Physics.}

• OSTI ID: 295521
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 6; ISSN 1070-664X; ISSN PHPAEN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ABLATION
FOILS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
PERTURBATION THEORY
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA SIMULATION
POLYMERS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SHOCK WAVES