Kelvin-Helmholtz turbulence associated with collisionless shocks in laser produced plasmas

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 May 11;108(19):195004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.195004. Epub 2012 May 11.

Abstract

We report the experimental results of a turbulent electric field driven by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability associated with laser produced collisionless shock waves. By irradiating an aluminum double plane target with a high-power laser, counterstreaming plasma flows are generated. As the consequence of the two plasma interactions, two shock waves and the contact surface are excited. The shock electric field and transverse modulation of the contact surface are observed by proton radiography. Performing hydrodynamic simulations, we reproduce the time evolutions of the reverse shocks and the transverse modulation driven by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.