Suppression of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability due to self-radiation in a multiablation target

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 May 14;92(19):195001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.195001. Epub 2004 May 13.

Abstract

A scheme to suppress the Rayleigh-Taylor instability has been investigated for a direct-drive inertial fusion target. In a high-Z doped-plastic target, two ablation surfaces are formed separately-one driven by thermal radiation and the other driven by electron conduction. The growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability is significantly suppressed on the radiation-driven ablation surface inside the target due to the large ablation velocity and long density scale length. A significant reduction of the growth rate was observed in simulations and experiments using a brominated plastic target. A new direct-drive pellet was designed using this scheme.