E. C. Merritt

Experimental Characterization of the Stagnation Layer between Two Obliquely Merging Supersonic Plasma Jets

We present spatially resolved measurements characterizing the stagnation layer between two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets. Intrajet collisionality is very high, but the interjet ion-ion mean free path is of the order of the stagnation layer thickness of a few centimeters. Fast-framing camera images show a double-peaked emission profile transverse to the stagnation layer, with the central emission dip consistent with a density dip in the interferometer data. We demonstrate that our observations are consistent with collisional oblique shocks.

Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jetsa)

We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density ∼1014 cm−3, electron temperature ≈1.4 eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity ≈40 km/s just prior to merging. The jet merging produces a few-cm-thick stagnation layer, as observed in both fast-framing camera images and multi-chord interferometer data, consistent with collisional shock formation [E. C. Merritt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 085003 (2013)].

The Shock/Shear platform for planar radiation-hydrodynamics experiments on the National Ignition Facilitya)

An indirectly-driven shock tube experiment fielded on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) was used to create a high-energy-density hydrodynamics platform at unprecedented scale. Scaling up a shear-induced mixing experiment previously fielded at OMEGA, the NIF shear platform drives 130 μm/ns shocks into a CH foam-filled shock tube (∼ 60 mg/cc) with interior dimensions of 1.5 mm diameter and 5 mm length. The pulse-shaping capabilities of the NIF are used to extend the drive for >10 ns, and the large interior tube volumes are used to isolate physics-altering edge effects from the region of interest. The scaling of the experiment to the NIF allows for considerable improvement in maximum driving time of hydrodynamics, in fidelity of physics under examination, and in diagnostic clarity. Details of the experimental platform and post-shot simulations used in the analysis of the platform-qualifying data are presented. Hydrodynamic scaling is used to compare shear data from OMEGA with that from NIF, suggesting a possible change in the dimensionality of the instability at late times from one platform to the other.

Development of a Big Area BackLighter for high energy density experiments

A very large area (7.5 mm(2)) laser-driven x-ray backlighter, termed the Big Area BackLighter (BABL) has been developed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to support high energy density experiments. The BABL provides an alternative to Pinhole-Apertured point-projection Backlighting (PABL) for a large field of view. This bypasses the challenges for PABL in the equatorial plane of the NIF target chamber where space is limited because of the unconverted laser light that threatens the diagnostic aperture, the backlighter foil, and the pinhole substrate. A transmission experiment using 132 kJ of NIF laser energy at a maximum intensity of 8.52 × 10(14) W/cm(2) illuminating the BABL demonstrated good conversion efficiency of >3.5% into K-shell emission producing ~4.6 kJ of high energy x rays, while yielding high contrast images with a highly uniform background that agree well with 2D simulated spectra and spatial profiles.

Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer with a long coherence length laser

A multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer [Merritt et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 033506 (2012)] is being used to make time-resolved density measurements of supersonic argon plasma jets on the Plasma Liner Experiment [Hsu et al., Bull. Amer. Phys. Soc. 56, 307 (2011)]. The long coherence length of the laser (> 10 m) allows signal and reference path lengths to be mismatched by many meters without signal degradation, making for a greatly simplified optical layout. Measured interferometry phase shifts are consistent with a partially ionized plasma in which an initially positive phase shift becomes negative when the ionization fraction drops below a certain threshold. In this case, both free electrons and bound electrons in ions and neutral atoms contribute to the index of refraction. This paper illustrates how the interferometry data, aided by numerical modeling, are used to derive total jet density, jet propagation velocity ({approx} 15-50 km/s), jet length ({approx} 20-100 cm), and 3D expansion.This paper describes a 561 nm laser heterodyne interferometer that provides time-resolved measurements of line-integrated plasma electron density within the range of 10(15)-10(18) cm(-2). Such plasmas are produced by railguns on the plasma liner experiment, which aims to produce μs-, cm-, and Mbar-scale plasmas through the merging of 30 plasma jets in a spherically convergent geometry. A long coherence length, 320 mW laser allows for a strong, sub-fringe phase-shift signal without the need for closely matched probe and reference path lengths. Thus, only one reference path is required for all eight probe paths, and an individual probe chord can be altered without altering the reference or other probe path lengths. Fiber-optic decoupling of the probe chord optics on the vacuum chamber from the rest of the system allows the probe paths to be easily altered to focus on different spatial regions of the plasma. We demonstrate that sub-fringe resolution capability allows the interferometer to operate down to line-integrated densities of the order of 5 × 10(15) cm(-2).

Modifying mixing and instability growth through the adjustment of initial conditions in a high-energy-density counter-propagating shear experiment on OMEGA

Counter-propagating shear experiments conducted at the OMEGA Laser Facility have been evaluating the effect of target initial conditions, specifically the characteristics of a tracer foil located at the shear boundary, on Kelvin-Helmholtz instability evolution and experiment transition toward nonlinearity and turbulence in the high-energy-density (HED) regime. Experiments are focused on both identifying and uncoupling the dependence of the model initial turbulent length scale in variable-density turbulence models of k-ϵ type on competing physical instability seed lengths as well as developing a path toward fully developed turbulent HED experiments. We present results from a series of experiments controllably and independently varying two initial types of scale lengths in the experiment: the thickness and surface roughness (surface perturbation scale spectrum) of a tracer layer at the shear interface. We show that decreasing the layer thickness and increasing the surface roughness both have the ability to increase the relative mixing in the system, and thus theoretically decrease the time required to begin transitioning to turbulence in the system. We also show that we can connect a change in observed mix width growth due to increased foil surface roughness to an analytically predicted change in model initial turbulent scale lengths.

Laboratory plasma physics experiments using merging supersonic plasma jets

We describe a laboratory plasma physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory that uses two merging supersonic plasma jets formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven rail guns. The jets can be formed using any atomic species or mixture available in a compressed-gas bottle and have the following nominal initial parameters at the railgun nozzle exit:

Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometry of supersonic plasma jets (invited)a)

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Evolution of surface structure in laser-preheated, perturbed materials

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Development of Indirectly Driven Shock Tube Targets for Counter-Propagating Shear-Driven Kelvin-Helmholtz Experiments on the National Ignition Facility

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