Measurements of shock-front structure in multi-species plasmas on OMEGA

ORAL

Abstract

The structure of a shock front in a plasma with multiple ion species is measured for the first time in experiments on the OMEGA laser. Thomson scattering of a 263.25~nm probe beam is used to diagnose electron density, electron and ion temperature, ion species concentration, and flow velocity in strong shocks ($M \sim 5$) propagating through low-density ($\rho \sim 0.1$~mg/cc) plasmas composed of H(98\%)+Ne(2\%) and H(98\%)+C(2\%). Separation of the ion species within the shock front is inferred. Although shocks play an important role in ICF and astrophysical plasmas, the intrinsically kinetic nature of the shock front indicates the need for experiments to benchmark hydrodynamic models. Comparison with PIC, Vlasov-Fokker-Planck, and multi-component hydrodynamic simulations will be presented.

*This work performed under auspices of U.S. DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

–

Authors

  • Hans G. Rinderknecht

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • H. S. Park

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Steven Ross

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • llnl

  • Scott Wilks

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, USA
    • llnl

  • Peter Amendt

    • LLNL
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • llnl

  • R. F. Heeter

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • LLNL

  • J. Katz

    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • N. M. Hoffman

    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Erik Vold

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab

  • William Taitano

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab

  • Andrei Simakov

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab
    • LANL

  • Luis Chac\'on

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab
    • LANL