Prospects for Optical Probing of the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Ablatively-Accelerated Foil Targets

摘要

Optical probing of non-uniformities is promising as a diagnostic of the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability. A study was made on an ablatively accelerated target which was designed to provide known initial conditions for the growth of the instability. Two diagnostic techniques were simultaneously used. A side-on, dark-field shadowgram (third harmonic) showed periodic structure in the steep-gradient region on the rear side of the accelerating target. The angular scatter pattern (second harmonic probe) from the front side was consistent with an expected periodic structure in the high-density region. (Author)