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

Conference · Mon Aug 29 04:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2263589· OSTI ID:883506

Colvin, J D; Kalantar, D H

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, <<10{sup 13} W/cm{sup 2}, 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 flashcoating 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.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 883506
• Report Number(s): UCRL-CONF-215123; IM #324333
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
COMPRESSION
ILLUMINANCE
LASERS
PLASMA
PLASTICS
TARGETS