Highly Radiative Shock Experiments driven by GEKKO XII

In this paper, recent experimental results on radiative shocks generated by a high power laser in a xenon gas cell are presented. Using the GEKKO XII laser, highly radiative shocks generated with intensity on target up to 10$^{15}$ W/cm$^{2}$ were produced. Our original gas cell design sustains a 0.1 bar pressure, lower than previously. The radiative shocks generated are high-Mach number shocks with a strong coupling between radiation and hydrodynamics. Several visible diagnostics were implemented in order to determine shock velocity, temperature and ``precursor'' electron density. It is the first time that velocities up to 250 km/s are observed in a low-density gaz. Preliminary comparison with 2D radiative hydrodynamic simulations will be discussed.