Carlos Di Stefano

Evolution of surface structure in laser-preheated, perturbed materials

We report an experimental and computational study investigating the effects of laser preheat on the hydrodynamic behavior of a material layer. In particular, we find that perturbation of the surface of the layer results in a complex interaction, in which the bulk of the layer develops density, pressure, and temperature structure and in which the surface experiences instability-like behavior, including mode coupling. A uniform one-temperature preheat model is used to reproduce the experimentally observed behavior, and we find that this model can be used to capture the evolution of the layer, while also providing evidence of complexities in the preheat behavior. This result has important consequences for inertially confined fusion plasmas, which can be difficult to diagnose in detail, as well as for laser hydrodynamics experiments, which generally depend on assumptions about initial conditions in order to interpret their results.

The Effect of a Dominant Initial Single Mode on the Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability Evolution: New Insights on Previous Experimental Results

This paper brings new insights on an experiment, measuring the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability evolution, performed on the OMEGA-60 laser facility. Experimental radiographs show that the initial seed perturbations in the experiment are of multimode spectrum with a dominant single-mode of 16 μm wavelength. In single-mode-dominated KH instability flows, the mixing zone (MZ) width saturates to a constant value comparable to the wavelength. However, the experimental MZ width at late times has exceeded 100 μm, an order of magnitude larger. In this work, we use numerical simulations and a statistical model in order to investigate the vortex dynamics of the KH instability for the experimental initial spectrum. We conclude that the KH instability evolution in the experiment is dominated by multimode, vortex-merger dynamics, overcoming the dominant initial mode.

Novel Target Fabrication Using 3D Printing Developed at University of Michigan

The University of Michigan has been fabricating targets for high-energy-density experiments for the past decade. We utilize the technique of machined acrylic bodies and mating components acting as constraints to build repeatable targets. Combining 3D printing with traditional machining, we are able to take advantage of the very best part of both aspects of manufacturing. Here we present several recent campaigns to act as showcase and introduction of our techniques and our experience with 3D printing, effecting how we utilize 3D printing in our target builds.