Feed-out of rear surface perturbation due to rarefaction wave in laser-irradiated targets

We report experimental results on hydrodynamic perturbation transfer from the rear to the front of laser-irradiated targets. Flat polystyrene foils with rear-surface perturbations were irradiated by partially coherent light. We observed phase inversion of the rear surface after the shock breakout at the rear surface. Perturbations on the laser-irradiated surface arose due to the rippled rarefaction wave. Experimental results were well reproduced by a simple model with unperturbed hydrodynamic quantities calculated From the one-dimensional simulation.