DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Highly Resolved Measurements of a Developing Strong Collisional Plasma Shock

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In this paper, the structure of a strong collisional shock front forming in a plasma is directly probed for the first time in laser-driven gas-jet experiments. Thomson scattering of a 526.5 nm probe beam was used to diagnose temperature and ion velocity distribution in a strong shock ($$M{\sim}11$$) propagating through a low-density ($${\rho}{\sim}0.01\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mg}/\mathrm{cc}$$) plasma composed of hydrogen. A forward-streaming population of ions traveling in excess of the shock velocity was observed to heat and slow down on an unmoving, unshocked population of cold protons, until ultimately the populations merge and begin to thermalize. Finally, instabilities are observed during the merging, indicating a uniquely plasma-phase process in shock front formation.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1438627
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--741313
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 120; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (35)

HYADES—A plasma hydrodynamics code for dense plasma studies journal January 1994
Initial performance results of the OMEGA laser system journal January 1997
Simulation techniques for heavy ion fusion chamber transport
  • Welch, D. R.; Rose, D. V.; Oliver, B. V.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 464, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(01)00024-9
journal May 2001
Studying astrophysical collisionless shocks with counterstreaming plasmas from high power lasers journal March 2012
Structure of a Plasma Shock Wave journal January 1964
Measurement of Shock-Wave Structure in Helium-Argon Mixtures journal January 1967
Implementation of a high energy 4ω probe beam on the Omega laser journal October 2004
Implementation of imaging Thomson scattering on the Omega Laser journal October 2006
Thomson scattering diagnostic for the measurement of ion species fraction journal October 2012
The formation of reverse shocks in magnetized high energy density supersonic plasma flows journal May 2014
Species separation and kinetic effects in collisional plasma shocks journal May 2014
Experimental characterization of a transition from collisionless to collisional interaction between head-on-merging supersonic plasma jetsa) journal May 2015
Plasma characterization using ultraviolet Thomson scattering from ion-acoustic and electron plasma waves (invited) journal July 2016
Simulated performance of the optical Thomson scattering diagnostic designed for the National Ignition Facility journal July 2016
Shock-induced mix across an ideal interface journal April 2017
Characterization of electrostatic shock in laser-produced optically-thin plasma flows using optical diagnostics journal July 2017
Study of self-generated fields in strongly-shocked, low-density systems using broadband proton radiography journal July 2017
Stopping and thermalization of interpenetrating plasma streams journal January 1991
Collision and interpenetration of plasmas created by laser‐illuminated disks journal April 1992
Ion kinetic simulations of the formation and propagation of a planar collisional shock wave in a plasma journal September 1993
Thickness of an embedded ion shock journal January 1975
Ignition on the National Ignition Facility: a path towards inertial fusion energy journal September 2009
A reflective image-rotating periscope for spatially resolved Thomson-scattering experiments on OMEGA journal December 2013
XV. On the thermodynamic theory of waves of finite longitudinal disturbance journal January 1870
Collisionless shock in a laser-produced ablating plasma journal August 1988
Deciphering the kinetic structure of multi-ion plasma shocks journal November 2017
Observation of Collisionless Shocks in Laser-Plasma Experiments journal July 2008
Time Evolution of Collisionless Shock in Counterstreaming Laser-Produced Plasmas journal April 2011
Time-Resolved Characterization of the Formation of a Collisionless Shock journal May 2013
Experimental Characterization of the Stagnation Layer between Two Obliquely Merging Supersonic Plasma Jets journal August 2013
Transition from Collisional to Collisionless Regimes in Interpenetrating Plasma Flows on the National Ignition Facility journal May 2017
Kinetic simulation of a collisional shock wave in a plasma journal October 1991
Design of an Optical Thomson Scattering diagnostic at the National Ignition Facility conference September 2016
Experimental characterization of the stagnation layer between two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets text January 2013
Deciphering the Kinetic Structure of Multi-Ion Plasma Shocks text January 2017

Cited By (10)

Laser beam self-focusing in collisional plasma with periodical density ripple journal February 2020
Measurements of ion velocity separation and ionization in multi-species plasma shocks journal May 2018
Implementation of ultraviolet Thomson scattering on SG-III laser facility journal September 2018
Experimental study of ion heating in obliquely merging hypersonic plasma jets journal August 2019
Hybrid particle-in-cell simulations of laser-driven plasma interpenetration, heating, and entrainment journal November 2019
Single shot high bandwidth laser plasma probe journal November 2019
Kinetic physics in ICF: present understanding and future directions journal April 2018
Experimental Measurements of Ion Heating in Collisional Plasma Shocks and Interpenetrating Supersonic Plasma Flows journal October 2018
Experimental Measurements of Ion Heating in Collisional Plasma Shocks and Interpenetrating Supersonic Plasma Flows text January 2018
Experimental Study of Ion Heating in Obliquely Merging Hypersonic Plasma Jets text January 2019