Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in high-energy density settings on the National Ignition Facility

Bruce A Remington; Hye-Sook Park; Daniel T Casey; Robert M Cavallo; Daniel S Clark; Channing M Huntington; Carolyn C Kuranz; Aaron R Miles; Sabrina R Nagel; Kumar S Raman; Vladimir A Smalyuk

doi:10.1073/pnas.1717236115

Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in high-energy density settings on the National Ignition Facility

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Sep 10;116(37):18233-18238. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1717236115. Epub 2018 Jun 26.

Affiliations

¹ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550; remington2@llnl.gov.
² Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550.
³ Atmospheric, Oceanic, Space Science Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48105.

Abstract

The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability occurs at an interface between two fluids of differing density during an acceleration. These instabilities can occur in very diverse settings, from inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions over spatial scales of [Formula: see text] cm (10-1,000 μm) to supernova explosions at spatial scales of [Formula: see text] cm and larger. We describe experiments and techniques for reducing ("stabilizing") RT growth in high-energy density (HED) settings on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Three unique regimes of stabilization are described: (i) at an ablation front, (ii) behind a radiative shock, and (iii) due to material strength. For comparison, we also show results from nonstabilized "classical" RT instability evolution in HED regimes on the NIF. Examples from experiments on the NIF in each regime are given. These phenomena also occur in several astrophysical scenarios and planetary science [Drake R (2005) Plasma Phys Controlled Fusion 47:B419-B440; Dahl TW, Stevenson DJ (2010) Earth Planet Sci Lett 295:177-186].

Keywords: National Ignition Facility; Rayleigh–Taylor instability; high-energy density experiments.