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

Abstract

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 $\sim 10^{14}$ cm${}^{-3}$, electron temperature $\approx 1.4$ eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity $\approx 40$ 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. {\bf 111}, 085003 (2013)].

11 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Physics of Plasmas (to be published in 2014 May issue)

References in corpus (5)

• Experimental characterization of railgun-driven supersonic plasma jets motivated by high energy density physics applications
• One-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic scaling studies of imploding spherical plasma liners
• Ideal hydrodynamic scaling relations for a stagnated imploding spherical plasma liner formed by an array of merging plasma jets
• One-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of imploding spherical plasma liners with detailed equation-of-state modeling
• Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometry of supersonic plasma jets and comparisons with synthetic data

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Laboratory Space Physics: Investigating the Physics of Space Plasmas in the Laboratory
• Experiment to Form and Characterize a Section of a Spherically Imploding Plasma Liner
• Laboratory plasma physics experiments using merging supersonic plasma jets
• Experimental characterization of a transition from collisionless to collisional interaction between head-on-merging supersonic plasma jets
• Possible Energy Gain for a Plasma Liner-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion Concept
• Magnetized Plasma Target for Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion
• Over-critical sharp-gradient plasma slab produced by the collision of laser-induced blast-waves in a gas jet; Application to high-energy proton acceleration
• Experimental Measurements of Ion Heating in Collisional Plasma Shocks and Interpenetrating Supersonic Plasma Flows
• Experimental characterization of a section of a spherically imploding plasma liner formed by merging hypersonic plasma jets
• Dual Mode Operation of a Hydromagnetic Plasma Thruster to Achieve Tunable Thrust and Specific Impulse
• Semi-analytic model of plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion
• Observation of Rayleigh-Taylor-Instability Evolution in a Plasma with Magnetic and Viscous Effects
• Observation of Shock-Front Separation in Multi-Ion-Species Collisional Plasma Shocks
• Experimental Study of Ion Heating in Obliquely Merging Hypersonic Plasma Jets
• Physics Criteria for a Subscale Plasma Liner Experiment
• An investigation of shock formation versus shock mitigation of colliding plasma jets
• Formation of Transient High-$\beta$ Plasmas in a Magnetized, Weakly Collisional Regime
• On Stability of Targets for Plasma Jet Induced Magnetoinertial Fusion