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arXiv · 1910.13778

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.

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B. Khiar, G. Revet, A. Ciardi, K. Burdonov, E. Filippov, J. Béard, M. Cerchez, S. N. Chen, T. Gangolf, S. S. Makarov, M. Ouillé, M. Safronova, I. Yu. Skobelev, A. Soloviev, M. Starodubtsev, O. Willi, S. Pikuz, J. Fuchs. 2019-10-30. Laser-produced magnetic-Rayleigh-Taylor unstable plasma slabs in a 20 T magnetic field. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.205001

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