Observation of laser driven supercritical radiative shock precursors

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jun 4;92(22):225001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.225001. Epub 2004 Jun 2.

Abstract

We present a supercritical radiative shock experiment performed with the LULI nanosecond laser facility. Using targets filled with xenon gas at low pressure, the propagation of a strong shock with a radiative precursor is evidenced. The main measured shock quantities (electronic density and propagation velocity) are shown to be in good agreement with theory and numerical simulations.