Turbulent interaction fronts in counterstreaming laser-produced plasma studies

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The formation of interaction fronts between an expanding barium laser-produced plasma and a partially photoionized deuterium background has been observed with holographic and schlieren diagnostics which employ resonant enhancement to achieve sensitivities of approximately 3×1013/cm3 for Baii ions. The front is found to be sharp, but turbulent, apparently due to Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities. The radius vs time behavior of the front is consistent with collisional coupling between the expanding plasma and the photoionized fraction of the background over the D2 pressure range 0–1000 mTorr. Data obtained with a microwave interferometer complement and support the conclusions based on optical diagnostics.