Density Profile of a Foil Accelerated by Laser Ablation

An experiment to measure the density profile of a foil accelerated by laser ablation has been designed and is underway. High-density material is measured with x-ray radiography and low-density plasma is measured using 251-nm interferometry. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation results from the code \textit{DRACO} will be compared to these data. The accelerated foil is an 80-$\mu $m-thick CH target with Ge and Si-doped layers. The incident laser is a 351-nm, 5-ns pulse with a total energy of 6.2 kJ. Si and Ti x rays are used for the radiography measurement. A 1-D image versus time data are recorded with an x-ray streak camera and 2-D image data at specific times are recorded with an x-ray framing camera using point-projection backlighting. Foil acceleration is measured with the 1-D data. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.