Counter-propagating radiative shock experiments on the Orion laser

F. Suzuki-Vidal; T. Clayson; G. F. Swadling; S. V. Lebedev; G. C. Burdiak; C. Stehlé; U. Chaulagain; R. L. Singh; J. M. Foster; J. Skidmore; E. T. Gumbrell; P. Graham; S. Patankar; C. Danson; C. Spindloe; J. Larour; M. Kozlova; R. Rodriguez; J. M. Gil; G. Espinosa; P. Velarde

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.055001

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arXiv · 1706.04824

Counter-propagating radiative shock experiments on the Orion laser

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Abstract

We present new experiments to study the formation of radiative shocks and the interaction between two counter-propagating radiative shocks. The experiments were performed at the Orion laser facility which was used to drive shocks in xenon inside large aspect ratio gas-cells. The collision between the two shocks and their respective radiative precursors, combined with the formation of inherently 3-dimensional shocks, provides a novel platform particularly suited for benchmarking of numerical codes. The dynamics of the shocks before and after the collision were investigated using point-projection X-ray backlighting while, simultaneously, the electron density in the radiative precursor was measured via optical laser interferometry. Modelling of the experiments using the 2-D radiation hydrodynamic codes NYM/PETRA show a very good agreement with the experimental results.

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F. Suzuki-Vidal, T. Clayson, G. F. Swadling, S. V. Lebedev, G. C. Burdiak, C. Stehlé, U. Chaulagain, R. L. Singh, J. M. Foster, J. Skidmore, E. T. Gumbrell, P. Graham, S. Patankar, C. Danson, C. Spindloe, J. Larour, M. Kozlova, R. Rodriguez, J. M. Gil, G. Espinosa, P. Velarde. 2017-06-15. Counter-propagating radiative shock experiments on the Orion laser. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.119.055001

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