Micron-scale phenomena observed in a turbulent laser-produced plasma.
Nat Commun
; 12(1): 2679, 2021 May 11.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33976145
ABSTRACT
Turbulence is ubiquitous in the universe and in fluid dynamics. It influences a wide range of high energy density systems, from inertial confinement fusion to astrophysical-object evolution. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial, however, due to limitations in experimental and numerical methods in plasma systems, a complete description of the turbulent spectrum is still lacking. Here, we present the measurement of a turbulent spectrum down to micron scale in a laser-plasma experiment. We use an experimental platform, which couples a high power optical laser, an x-ray free-electron laser and a lithium fluoride crystal, to study the dynamics of a plasma flow with micrometric resolution (~1µm) over a large field of view (>1 mm2). After the evolution of a Rayleigh-Taylor unstable system, we obtain spectra, which are overall consistent with existing turbulent theory, but present unexpected features. This work paves the way towards a better understanding of numerous systems, as it allows the direct comparison of experimental results, theory and numerical simulations.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2021
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
France