Kelvin-Helmholtz turbulence associated with collisionless shocks in laser produced plasmas

We report the experimental results of a turbulent electric field driven by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability associated with laser produced collisionless shock waves. By irradiating an aluminum double plane target with a high-power laser, counterstreaming plasma flows are generated. As the consequence of...

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Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 108; no. 19; p. 195004
Main Authors Kuramitsu, Y, Sakawa, Y, Dono, S, Gregory, C D, Pikuz, S A, Loupias, B, Koenig, M, Waugh, J N, Woolsey, N, Morita, T, Moritaka, T, Sano, T, Matsumoto, Y, Mizuta, A, Ohnishi, N, Takabe, H
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 11.05.2012
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Summary:We report the experimental results of a turbulent electric field driven by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability associated with laser produced collisionless shock waves. By irradiating an aluminum double plane target with a high-power laser, counterstreaming plasma flows are generated. As the consequence of the two plasma interactions, two shock waves and the contact surface are excited. The shock electric field and transverse modulation of the contact surface are observed by proton radiography. Performing hydrodynamic simulations, we reproduce the time evolutions of the reverse shocks and the transverse modulation driven by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.195004