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Park, Hye -Sook

Publications and source records attributed to Park, Hye -Sook.

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

Here, 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 ~10 –3 – 10 –1 cm (10–1,000 μm) to supernova explosions at spatial scales of ~10 12 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.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

How high energy fluxes may affect Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth in young supernova remnants

Here, energy-transport effects can alter the structure that develops as a supernova evolves into a supernova remnant. The Rayleigh–Taylor instability is thought to produce structure at the interface between the stellar ejecta and the circumstellar matter, based on simple models and hydrodynamic simulations. Here we report experimental results from the National Ignition Facility to explore how large energy fluxes, which are present in supernovae, affect this structure. We observed a reduction in Rayleigh–Taylor growth. In analyzing the comparison with supernova SN1993J, a Type II supernova, we found that the energy fluxes produced by heat conduction appear to be larger than the radiative energy fluxes, and large enough to have dramatic consequences. No reported astrophysical simulations have included radiation and heat conduction self-consistently in modeling supernova remnants and these dynamics should be noted in the understanding of young supernova remnants.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Direct Laser Writing of Low-Density Interdigitated Foams for Plasma Drive Shaping [Direct Laser Writing of Low Density Nanostitched Foams for Plasma Drive Shaping]

Monolithic porous bulk materials have many promising applications ranging from energy storage and catalysis to high energy density physics. High resolution additive manufacturing techniques, such as direct laser writing via two photon polymerization (DLW-TPP), now enable the fabrication of highly porous microlattices with deterministic morphology control. In this work, DLW-TPP is used to print millimeter-sized foam reservoirs (down to 0.06 g cm –3 ) with tailored density-gradient profiles, where density is varied by over an order of magnitude (for instance from 0.6 to 0.06 g cm –3 ) along a length of <100 µm. Taking full advantage of this technology, however, is a multiscale materials design problem that requires detailed understanding of how the different length scales, from the molecular level to the macroscopic dimensions, affect each other. The design of these 3D-printed foams is based on the brickwork arrangement of 100 × 100 × 16 µm 3 log-pile blocks constructed from sub-micrometer scale features. A block-to-block interdigitated stitching strategy is introduced for obtaining high density uniformity at all length scales. Lastly, these materials are used to shape plasma-piston drives during ramp-compression of targets under high energy density conditions created at the OMEGA Laser Facility.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Research Performance Progress Report

The major goals of this project is to develop a suite of diagnostics to probe magnetic fields generated by the dynamics of high velocity interpenetrating plasma flows relevant to astrophysical collisionless shocks. Collisionless shocks are common in the universe and are responsible for decelerating and thermalizing supersonic plasma flows and accelerating a fraction of the incident particles to high energies. When high velocity, low density, plasma flows interact in astrophysics, turbulent electrostatic and electromagnetic waves are generated due to plasma instabilities, such as the Weibel instability. This can lead to localized pockets of very strong magnetic field generation. The net result is that the plasmas stagnate in what is called a collisionless shock. Understanding these enigmatic interactions requires well-controlled laboratory experiments able to validate the theory and the simulations. Time and spatially resolved magnetic field diagnostics are key to probing these frontier plasma dynamics, relevant to both astrophysics and laboratory applications of plasma physics. This project will enable us to develop the necessary diagnostics for this experiment on NIF. Our team has vast experience in performing laser experiments, theory, simulations and diagnostic development and is ideally suited for carrying out this work.

42 ENGINEERING↗