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DOE OSTI · 3022693

Preheat effects in laser-driven Rayleigh–Taylor instability experiments at intensities greater than $10^{15}$ $\textrm{W}$ $\textrm{cm}^{-2}$ at OMEGA EP and the NIF

Samulski, Camille Clement [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000283851446)·Manuel, Mario J.-E. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)]·Tsung, Frank S. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)]·Nagel, Sabrina [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Carroll, Evan Grant [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Pollock, Bradley [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Kalantar, Daniel H. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Provencher, Christopher Michael [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Raman, Kumar S. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]·Kline, John L. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000222719919)·Srinivasan, Bhuvana [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000207121097)
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Abstract

The propagation of high-energy X-rays or hot electrons have the potential to alter the initial conditions in experimental target designs, especially at material interfaces, for laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high-energy density (HED) experimental platforms. Hot-electron preheat can drastically modify the initial conditions of experimental targets used to study the deceleration-stage Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) both with and without applied magnetic fields. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and quantify the impact of hot-electron preheat. The hydrodynamic (HD) capabilities in the Ares code are used to study the effects varying levels of preheat can have on RTI evolution. The experimental and computational studies presented in this work demonstrate that at high laser intensities of around or greater than 10 15 W cm −2 , there is hot-electron generation from laser plasma instabilities which induces substantial preheat and impacts the morphology of RTI evolution and even inhibits the intended RTI growth such that it is not observable experimentally. The necessity of better quantifying hot-electron induced preheat and mitigating its impact on such high-intensity direct-drive laser experiments in the future is discussed.

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70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGYfusion plasmaplasma instabilitiesplasma simulation

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Samulski, Camille Clement [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000283851446), Manuel, Mario J.-E. [General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)], Tsung, Frank S. [Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)], Nagel, Sabrina [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Carroll, Evan Grant [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Pollock, Bradley [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Kalantar, Daniel H. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Provencher, Christopher Michael [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Raman, Kumar S. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Kline, John L. [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000222719919), Srinivasan, Bhuvana [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000207121097). 2026-03-03. Preheat effects in laser-driven Rayleigh–Taylor instability experiments at intensities greater than $10^{15}$ $\textrm{W}$ $\textrm{cm}^{-2}$ at OMEGA EP and the NIF. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022377825101165

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