Gaseous Laser Targets and Optical Dignostics for Studying Compressible Turbulent Hydrodynamic Instabilities

Résumé du livre

The possibility of studying compressible turbulent flows using gas targets driven by high power lasers and diagnosed with optical techniques is investigated. The potential advantage over typical laser experiments that use solid targets and x-ray diagnostics is more detailed information over a larger range of spatial scales. An experimental system is described to study shock - jet interactions at high Mach number. This consists of a mini-chamber full of nitrogen at a pressure {approx} 1 atms. The mini-chamber is situated inside a much larger vacuum chamber. An intense laser pulse ({approx}100J in {approx} 5ns) is focused on to a thin {approx} 0.3{micro}m thick silicon nitride window at one end of the mini-chamber. The window acts both as a vacuum barrier, and laser entrance hole. The ''explosion'' caused by the deposition of the laser energy just inside the window drives a strong blast wave out into the nitrogen atmosphere. The spherical shock expands and interacts with a jet of xenon introduced though the top of the mini-chamber. The Mach number of the interaction is controlled by the separation of the jet from the explosion. The resulting flow is visualized using an optical schlieren system using a pulsed laser source at a wavelength of 0.53 {micro}m. The technical path leading up to the design of this experiment is presented, and future prospects briefly considered. Lack of laser time in the final year of the project severely limited experimental results obtained using the new apparatus.