Experimental study of pulsed power driven radiative shockwaves in noble gases

The use of plastic disks coated with a thin film of Aluminium has been investigated as a control mechanism for the shockwave formed from a radial foil z-pinch in the presence of an ambient medium. Experiments were carried out on the MAGPIE (1.4MA, 250ns rise time) facility at Imperial College London. The configuration produces a strong radiative shockwave driven with constant velocity (\textgreater~25km/s) for long time (\textgreater~400ns) and spatial scales (cm). Experimental results demonstrate scaling of shock compression opposite to that found in 1D radiation hydrodynamic simulations. Evidence of a thermal instability in the post-shock cooling region is linked to a decrease in compression for higher atomic masses due to increased radiative cooling. Increases in post-shock temperature and ionization have been measured with decreased radial distance from a strongly cooling hydrodynamic jet. Regions of observed thermal instability for Xenon and Krypton agree with those expected from evaluation of theoretical cooling functions.