Laser-produced magnetic-Rayleigh-Taylor unstable plasma slabs in a 20 T magnetic field

Abstract

Magnetized laser-produced plasmas are central to many novel laboratory astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion studies, as well as in industrial applications. Here we provide the first complete description of the three-dimensional dynamics of a laser-driven plasma plume expanding in a 20 T transverse magnetic field. The plasma is collimated by the magnetic field into a slender, rapidly elongating slab, whose plasma-vacuum interface is unstable to the growth of the "classical", fluid-like magnetized Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (4)

• The evolution of magnetic tower jets in the laboratory
• Wave Heating of the Solar Atmosphere
• Astrophysics of magnetically collimated jets generated from laser-produced plasmas
• Precision mapping of laser-driven magnetic fields and their evolution in high-energy-density plasmas

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• A numerical study of gravity driven instability in strongly coupled dusty plasmas.Part I: Rayleigh-Taylor instability and Buoyancy-driven instability
• Particle energization in colliding subcritical collisionless shocks investigated in the laboratory
• Characterization of the stability and dynamics of a laser-produced plasma expanding across strong magnetic field
• Persistent mysteries of jet engines, formation, propagation, and particle acceleration: have they been addressed experimentally?
• Pulsed magnetic field generation system for laser-plasma research
• A 3D Magnetohydrodynamic simulation for the propagation of plasma plume transverse to applied magnetic field
• Enhanced x-ray emission arising from laser-plasma confinement by a strong transverse magnetic field
• Detailed characterization of laboratory magnetized super-critical collisionless shock and of the associated proton energization