Collisionless shock gas jet experiments at OMEGA

ORAL

Abstract

We report OMEGA experiments utilizing a gas jet system to produce and study collisionless shocks. A hollow CH hemisphere is illuminated with lasers to produce a supersonic plasma flow. The plasma flow collides with a hydrogen gas jet and the two plasmas interact to form a collisionless shock. Imaging Thomson scattering measurements clearly show density and temperature jumps. Density increases by a factor of about 3 and temperature by a factor of about 5. The plasma flow velocity is measured to be greater than 1500 km/s leading to carbon-carbon collision mean free path of about 2 cm which is much larger than the shock front thickness (about 100 um). This indicates that the system is collisionless. Proton radiography data show a shock structure that evolves in time.

*This work is supported in part by the U.S. DOE, the MIT/NNSA CoE, and NLUF.

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Presenters

  • Tim M Johnson

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

Authors

  • Tim M Johnson

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

  • Graeme Sutcliffe

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI

  • Jacob A Pearcy

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

  • Andrew Birkel

    • MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • PSFC, MIT

  • Vladimir Tikhonchuk

    • University of Bordeaux
    • CELIA, University of Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, 33405 Talence, France

  • Joe D Katz

    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics
    • University of Rochester
    • Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester

  • Richard Petrasso

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • MIT

  • Chikang Li

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • MIT