Radiative Shock Experiments on the Omega Laser
Forrest Doss, University of Michigan
Experiments have been designed for the Omega laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics to observe the dynamics of a collapsed radiative shock. Previous experiments have observed the possible onset of instabilities in such structures, which the current work will attempt to investigate directly through dual-radiography imaging. The experiments consist of thin solid discs propelled into gas filled volumes, accelerated to above 100 km/s. In this regime, radiative transport will become significant, mimicking the shock structures found in a variety of astrophysical and high-energy-density systems in which the shocked layer undergoes spatial collapse due to the emission of large fractions of its thermal energy as radiation flux.
Abstract Author(s): F. W. Doss