Shockwave-Driven, Supersonic Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability Experiment on OMEGA-EP

Hydrodynamic instabilities are commonly encountered in a variety of high-energy-density systems, including fusion experiments and various astrophysical processes. Shear flow at a fluid interface gives rise to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which then results in mixing between the layers. This talk will cover a recent experiment performed at the OMEGA-EP facility that studied the dampening of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability as a result of compressibility effects in a high convective Mach number regime. A laser-driven shockwave was used to create shear flow between a low-density foam and high-density plastic. The instability growth was assisted by seeded, single-mode perturbations of varied wavelengths. Our primary diagnostic was x-ray radiography.\\[4pt] This work is funded by the~NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, grant number DE-FG52-09NA29548, and by the National Laser User Facility Program, grant number~DE-NA0000850, with additional support provided under Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC52-08NA28302 through the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester.