Single-mode Rayleigh-Taylor growth-rate measurements with the OMEGA laser system
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (United States)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (United States)
- Imperial College (United States)
The results from a series of single-mode Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability growth experiments performed on the OMEGA laser system using planar targets are reported. Planar targets with imposed mass perturbations were accelerated using five to six 351-nm laser beams overlapped with total intensities up to 2.5{times}10{sup 14}W/cm{sup 2}. Experiments were performed with both 3-ns ramp and 3-ns flat-topped temporal pulse shapes. The use of distributed phase plates and smoothing by spectral dispersion resulted in a laser-irradiation nonuniformity of 4{percent}{endash}7{percent} over a 600-{mu}m-diam region defined by the 90{percent} intensity contour. The temporal growth of the modulation in optical depth was measured using through-foil radiography and was detected with an x-ray framing camera for CH targets with and without a foam buffer. The growth of both 31-{mu}m and 60-{mu}m wavelength perturbations was found to be in good agreement with {ital ORCHID} simulations when the experimental details, including noise, were included. The addition of a 30-mg/cc, 100-{mu}m-thick polystyrene foam buffer layer resulted in reduced growth of the 31-{mu}m perturbation and essentially unchanged growth for the 60-{mu}m case when compared to targets without foam. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC03-92SF19460
- OSTI ID:
- 609869
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970407-; ISSN 0094-243X; TRN: 98:005325
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 406, Issue 1; Conference: 13. international conference on laser interaction and related plasma phenomena, Monterey, CA (United States), 13-18 Apr 1997; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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