Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiments on the LULI2000 laser in scaled conditions for young supernova remnants

Abstract

We describe a platform developed on the LULI2000 laser facility to investigate the evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) in scaled conditions relevant to young Supernovae Remnant (SNR) up to 200 years. An RT unstable interface is imaged with a short-pulse laser-driven (PICO2000) x-ray source, providing an unprecedented simultaneous high spatial (24 µm) and temporal (10 ps) resolution. This experiment provides relevant data to compare with astrophysical codes, as observational data on the development of RTI at the early stage of the SNR expansion are missing. A comparison is also performed with FLASH radiative magneto-hydrodynamic simulations.

Exploring the Atwood-number dependence of the highly nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability regime in high-energy-density conditions

“…The experiments were performed on the LULI2000 laser facility using the setup described in [35]. The nano2000 laser beam (500 J, 2ω, 1.5 ns with a 470 µm super-Gaussian focal spot) deposits its energy on a multilayer target, with an intensity of 2 × 10 14 W cm −2 .…”

“…We employed three kind of modulations: a sine curve (λ =120 µm wavelength, 10 µm amplitude), the sum of two sine curves ((70 and 130) µm wavelengths, (10 and 10) µm amplitudes), and flat targets. Here we will focus on single-mode data, as no obvious difference was observed between mono-and bi-mode [35]. As a consequence of the target ablation by the laser, a shockwave is launched into the target and put it into motion.…”

“…In this article, we explore the Atwood-number dependency of the RTI in HED conditions for the first time. This study builds upon the classical scheme of a laserproduced plasma expanding into a foam [33][34][35][36], with different densities. This HED platform is much simpler than traditional shock tube RTI platforms.…”

Recent progress in quantifying hydrodynamics instabilities and turbulence in inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density experiments

“…This is the culmination of a long thought research project [125][126][127]. Efforts are still underway to increase the spatial resolution of the x-ray radiographs with point-projection short pulse wire backlighters [128,129], with the aim of taking advantage of short pulse backlighter capabilities like the advanced radiographic capability (ARC) laser system at the NIF [130] or Petawatt Aquitaine Laser (PETAL) on LMJ [131]. These additional laser beamlines, based on OPCPA (Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification) technology [132], are extremely useful for generating bright X-ray sources [130] or protons beams [133] used, for example, to probe magnetized HED plasmas [134].…”

Knudsen Number Effects on Two-Dimensional Rayleigh–Taylor Instability in Compressible Fluid: Based on a Discrete Boltzmann Method

“…RT instability plays a very important role in many fields: for example, in the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) [ 2 , 3 , 4 ], the supernova explosion [ 5 ], the Z-pinch plasma [ 6 ], the quantum magnetized plasma [ 7 ], the colloid admixture [ 8 ], and so on. There has been a handful of reported experiments [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ] to describe RT instability, and great results have been achieved. However, due to the harsh experimental conditions, many researchers prefer to resort to numerical approaches to study RT instability, such as the unified decomposition method [ 14 ], the flux-corrected transport [ 15 ], the finite element method [ 16 ], the front tracking method [ 17 ], the monte carlo method [ 18 ], the polyphase moving particle semi-implicit method [ 19 ], smoothed particle hydrodynamics method [ 20 ], etc.…”