Measurement of Feedthrough and Instability Growth in Radiation-Driven Cylindrical Implosions

We have performed the first radiation-driven implosions in a convergent geometry where feedthrough of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and Bell-Plesset growth are observed. A perturbation in a dodecagon shape was machined on the outer surface of a cylindrical polystyrene shell. The shell was imploded by radiation ablation in a hohlraum at the Nova laser. Growth of the perturbation was observed at the inner surface of the shell via x-ray backlighter imaging. This method shows promise for the study of instability growth and feedthrough in converging flows.