Laser-Driven Rayleigh-Taylor Instability: Plasmonics Effects and Three-Dimensional Structures
Abstract
The acceleration of dense targets driven by the radiation pressure of high-intensity lasers leads to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) with rippling of the interaction surface. Using a simple model it is shown that the self-consistent modulation of the radiation pressure caused by a sinusoidal rippling affects substantially the wavevector spectrum of the RTI depending on the laser polarization. The plasmonic enhancement of the local field when the rippling period is close to a laser wavelength sets the dominant RTI scale. The nonlinear evolution is investigated by three dimensional simulations, which show the formation of stable structures with "wallpaper" symmetry.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.1260,
title = {Laser-Driven Rayleigh-Taylor Instability: Plasmonics Effects and Three-Dimensional Structures},
author = {Andrea Sgattoni and Stefano Sinigardi and Luca Fedeli and Francesco Pegoraro and Andrea Macchi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.1260},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
5 pages, 5 figures. New version includes 2D and 3D simulations. More details in the analytical calculation are given in the previous version