Direct Observation of Mass Oscillations Due to Ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability in Plastic Targets

Abstract

We report the first direct experimental observation of the ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. It manifests itself in oscillations of areal mass that occur during the shock transit time, which are caused by the rocket effect or dynamic overpressure characteristic of interaction between the laser absorption zone and the ablation front. With the 4 ns long Nike KrF laser pulse and our novel diagnostic technique (monochromatic x-ray imaging coupled to a streak camera) we were able to register a peak and a valley of the areal mass variation before the observed onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor growth.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA482926

Entities

People

  • A. L. Velikovich
  • A. N. Mostovych
  • Andrew J. Schmitt
  • C. J. Pawley
  • John H. Gardner
  • M. Karasik
  • N. Metzler
  • Stephen P.P. Obenschain
  • V. Serlin
  • Y. Aglitskiy

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ablation
  • Cameras
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Hypervelocity Flow
  • Instability
  • Krypton Fluoride Lasers
  • Laser Beams
  • Laser Pulses
  • Lasers
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Observation
  • Oscillation
  • Physics
  • Simulations
  • Streak Cameras
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy