Design of a Single-Mode Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Experiment in the Highly Nonlinear Regime

An experimental design, intended to investigate the evolution of the single mode Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability in the late time regime is proposed and theoretically analyzed. The goal of the experiment is to directly measure the evolution of the shape of the interface in time, for both low and high-Atwood numbers (A ∼ 0.0.15 and A ∼ 0.6). An objective of this study is to assess the degree to which, using 10-kJ-class lasers, one can expect to observe the predicted re-acceleration of the height of structures produced by RT, which occurs in low-A simulations. The specific design presented here shows no effects of x-ray preheat, and tolerable effects of 2D rarefactions. Observation of the reacceleration effect, at the 10-kJ scale, appears marginal for the design presented here. Experiments could serve to test and validate the numerical results, and determine whether a larger-scale laser would be needed to actually observe the reacceleration effect.