High pressure solid state experiments on the Nova laser

An x-ray drive has been developed to shock compress metal foils in the solid state in order to study the material strength under high compression. The drive has been characterized and hydrodynamics experiments designed to study growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in Cu foils at 3 Mbar peak pressures have been started. Pre-imposed modulations with an initial wavelength of 20-50 mu m, and amplitudes of 1.0-2.5 mu m show growth consistent with simulations. In this parameter regime, the fluid and solid states are expected to behave similarly for Cu. An analytic stability analysis is used to motivate an experimental design with an Al foil where the effects of material strength on the RT growth are significantly enhanced. Improved x-ray drive design will allow the material to stay solid under compression throughout the experiment, and dynamic diffraction techniques are being developed to verify the compressed state. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.