Stability of Ablatively Accelerated Thin Foils

Abstract
The stability of ablatively accelerated single-layer and multilayer thin foil targets has been studied by x-ray shadowgraphy and x-ray spectral analysis of the rear target surface. Results show the single-layer foil acceleration to be essentially stable with the disassembly being thermally dominated. An upper limit to Rayleigh-Taylor growth of 1.8 is determined compared to a classical value of 11. Evidence, though, of internal layer mixing in the multilayer target is seen.