Design and Fabrication of RF/CRF Aerogel Flier-Plates with Graded Density For Laser-Driven Quasi-Isentropic Compression Experiments

Resorcinol Formaldehyde (RF)/Carbonized Resorcinol Formaldehyde (CRF) aerogel flier-plates with graded density were designed and fabricated via simple and effective approaches, for increasing the peak pressure and shaping the compression profile in Laser-driven quasi-isentropic compression (ICE) experiments. Sol-gel technique and flexible micro-mould were involved in launching density gradients into aerogel. Resorcinol (R)-formaldehyde (F)-water system catalyzed by sodium carbonate (C) was employed to provide organic RF aerogel, various of sol with different recipes were cast into the mould layer by layer; A carbon dioxide (CO$_{2})$ supercritical fluid drying (SCFD) process and a four-step pyrolysis process were applied to convert RF hydrogel into RF aerogel, RF aerogel into CRF aerogel, respectively. After a four-step pyrolysis process, RF aerogel was converted to CRF aerogel. The strategies were demonstrated to be simple and effective in launching density gradients into RF/CRF aerogel flyer-plates. It was found in the Laser-Driven Quasi-Isentropic compression experiments of Al that the rise time of the ramp compression wave was about 50{\%} longer for the graded density RF aerogel case.