Numerically Simulating Collisions of Plastic and Foam Laser-Driven Foils

Interest in experiments on colliding planar foils has recently been stimulated by (a) the Impact Fast Ignition approach to laser fusion [1], and (b) the approach to a high-repetition rate ignition facility based on direct drive with the KrF laser [2]. Simulating the evolution of perturbations to such foils can be a numerical challenge, especially if the initial perturbation amplitudes are small. We discuss the numerical issues involved in such simulations, describe their benchmarking against recently-developed analytic results, and present simulations of such experiments on NRL's Nike laser. \newline [1] M. Murakami \textit {et al}., Nucl. Fusion \textbf{46}, 99 (2006) \newline [2] S. P. Obenschain \textit{et al}., Phys. Plasmas \textbf{13}, 056320 (2006).