Design of a Rayleigh–Taylor experiment to measure strength at high pressures

We present a design to measure the strength of a metal at very high pressures using the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The target consists of a metal foil behind a tamper and an ablator, driven by soft x rays generated in a hohlraum at the Nation Ignition Facility or Laser Megajoule. Since ignition capsules and strength targets both call for quasiadiabatic drives, we use the early, 0–16 ns, part of the ignition pulse to drive an almost-10-Mb strength experiment. We also discuss variations on how initial perturbations may be placed at the metal/tamper interface, resulting in a high-pressure microindentation technique. We illustrate the time-evolution of perturbations under various assumptions concerning tantalum strength.