Radiative shock experiments on the SG-II laser

We present first results on the formation of radiative shocks on the SG-II laser at SIOM in China. The experiments build upon previous studies of piston-driven radiative shocks in Xenon [1] and Neon [2] using large-aspect ratio gas-cells, allowing the shocks to propagate unimpeded. The SG-II experiments looked at the dynamics of single and counterpropagating shocks in Argon at a pressure of \textasciitilde 1 bar with time-resolved, point-projection X-ray backlighting using a Scandium backlighter (\textasciitilde 4.3 keV probing energy). A new target design was used to study the late-time evolution of these shocks at times \textasciitilde 100 ns, allowing the development of spatial features at the head of the shocks to be investigated. [1] F. Suzuki-Vidal et al., ``Counterpropagating Radiative Shock Experiments on the Orion Laser'', Physical Review Letters 119, 055001 (2017), [2] T. Clayson et al., ``Counter-propagating radiative shock experiments on the Orion laser and the formation of radiative precursors'', High Energy Density Physics 23, 60-72 (2017).