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Demonstration of Scale-Invariant Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Growth in Laser-Driven Cylindrical Implosion Experiments

J. P. Sauppe, S. Palaniyappan, B. J. Tobias, J. L. Kline, K. A. Flippo, O. L. Landen, D. Shvarts, S. H. Batha, P. A. Bradley, E. N. Loomis, N. N. Vazirani, C. F. Kawaguchi, L. Kot, D. W. Schmidt, T. H. Day, A. B. Zylstra, and E. Malka
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 185003 – Published 7 May 2020
Physics logo See synopsis: Laser-Driven Implosions Similar at Dissimilar Scales

Abstract

Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth is shown to be hydrodynamically scale invariant in convergent cylindrical implosions for targets that varied in radial dimension and implosion timescale by a factor of 3. The targets were driven directly by laser irradiation providing a short impulse, and instability growth at an embedded aluminum interface occurs as it converges radially inward by a factor of 2.25 and decelerates on a central foam core. Late-time growth factors of 14 are observed for a single-mode m=20 azimuthal perturbation at both scales, despite the differences in laser drive conditions between the experimental facilities, consistent with predictions from radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. This platform enables detailed investigations into the limits of hydrodynamic scaling in high-energy-density systems.

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  • Received 20 December 2019
  • Revised 16 March 2020
  • Accepted 7 April 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.185003

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Plasma Physics

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Laser-Driven Implosions Similar at Dissimilar Scales

Published 7 May 2020

Imploding targets at two different inertial confinement fusion facilities exhibit the same hydrodynamics over spatial and temporal scales that vary by a factor of 3.

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Authors & Affiliations

J. P. Sauppe1,*, S. Palaniyappan1, B. J. Tobias1, J. L. Kline1, K. A. Flippo1, O. L. Landen2, D. Shvarts3,4, S. H. Batha1, P. A. Bradley1, E. N. Loomis1, N. N. Vazirani1, C. F. Kawaguchi1, L. Kot1, D. W. Schmidt1, T. H. Day1, A. B. Zylstra2, and E. Malka4

  • 1Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
  • 3Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, 8410501, Israel
  • 4Nuclear Research Center of the Negev, Beersheba, 84190, Israel

  • *jpsauppe@lanl.gov

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Vol. 124, Iss. 18 — 8 May 2020

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