Measurement and analysis of Rayleigh–Taylor instability in targets driven by incoherent laser radiation

The effectiveness of incoherence-induced optical smoothing techniques is studied experimentally and good agreement with theory is found. Using incoherent laser-drive radiation, the Rayleigh–Taylor instability is investigated in planar foil targets with imposed sinusoidal modulations. Growth rates of up to 60% of the classical value are inferred from the measurements and the nonlinear behavior of the instability is investigated. Growth is observed at all wavelengths tested between 30 and 100 μm.