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Updated: Jan 6, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiments on the LULI2000 laser in scaled conditions for young supernova remnants
G Rigon, A Casner1, B Albertazzi
1Université de Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA, CELIA, UMR 5107, F-33405 Talence, France.
Abstract:
We describe a platform developed on the LULI2000 laser facility to investigate the evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) in scaled conditions relevant to young supernova remnants (SNRs) up to 200 years. An RT unstable interface is imaged with a short-pulse laser-driven (PICO2000) x-ray source, providing an unprecedented simultaneous high spatial (24μm) and temporal (10 ps) resolution. This experiment provides relevant data to compare with astrophysical codes, as observational data on the development of RTI at the early stage of the SNR expansion are missing. A comparison is also performed with FLASH radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations.

