Direct observation of mass oscillations due to ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability and feedout in planar plastic targets

Perturbations that seed Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in laser-driven targets form during the early-time period. This time includes a shock wave transit from the front to the rear surface of the target, and a rarefaction wave transit in the opposite direction. During this time interval, areal mass perturbations caused by all sources of nonuniformity (laser imprint, surface ripple) are expected to oscillate. The first direct experimental observations of the areal mass oscillations due to ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability and feedout followed by the RT growth of areal mass modulation are discussed. The experiments were made with 40-99 mum thick planar plastic targets rippled either on the front or on the rear with a sine wave ripple with either 30 or 45 mum wavelength and with 0.5, 1, or 1.5 mum amplitude. Targets were irradiated with 4 ns long Nike KrF laser pulses at similar to50 TW/cm(2). The oscillations were observed with our novel diagnostic technique, a monochromatic x-ray imager coupled to a streak camera. For the ablative RM instability (front side ripple), the mass modulation amplitude was typically observed to grow, reach a peak, and then decrease, after which the exponential RT growth started. In some cases, one phase reversal due to the ablative RM instability was observed. For the feedout geometry (rear side ripple), in all cases two phase reversals were observed: a distinct half-oscillation was followed by the onset of the RT growth, resulting in a second phase reversal. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.