Laser-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Plasmonic effects and three-dimensional structures

Year: 2015

Authors: Sgattoni A., Sinigardi S., Fedeli L., Pegoraro F., Macchi A.

Autors Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, research unit Adriano Gozzini, Pisa, Italy
Dipartimento di Energia, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Italy
INFN sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Dipartimento di Fisica Enrico Fermi, Università di Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy

Abstract: The acceleration of dense targets driven by the radiation pressure of high-intensity lasers leads to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) with rippling of the interaction surface. Using a simple model it is shown that the self-consistent modulation of the radiation pressure caused by a sinusoidal rippling affects substantially the wave vector spectrum of the RTI, depending on the laser polarization. The plasmonic enhancement of the local field when the rippling period is close to a laser wavelength sets the dominant RTI scale. The nonlinear evolution is investigated by three-dimensional simulations, which show the formation of stable structures with \”wallpaper\” symmetry.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW E

Volume: 91 (1)      Pages from: 013106-1  to: 013106-6

More Information: We thank P. Londrillo (University of Bologna and INFN, Italy) for help with the ALADYN code and M. Lupetti (Ludwig-Maximilians- Universitaet, Muenchen, Germany), F. Califano (University of Pisa, Italy), and D. Del Sarto (University of Nancy, France) for useful discussions. We acknowledge Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) for access to the BlueGene/Q FERMI, based in Italy at CINECA, via the project \”LSAIL.\” Support from Italian Ministry for education, University and Research (MIUR), Italy, via the Futuro in ricerca (FIR) project \”SULDIS\” is also acknowledged.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.91.013106

Citations: 65
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