Characterization of similar Marshak waves observed at the LMJ

Abstract

We detail results of two experiments performed at the Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) facility aimed at studying similar supersonic Marshak waves propagating in a low-density SiO2 aerogel enclosed in metallic tubes. Similar means here that these two experiments, driven by the same input radiation temperature history, use purposely very different tubes in terms of length (L = 1200 or 2000 μm), diameter (2R = 1000 or 2000 μm), nature of the wall (gold or copper), and aerogel densities (ρ = 30 or 20 mg/cm3), yet the transit time and the radiation temperature of the fronts at the tube exit are the same for both shots. Marshak waves are characterized at the exit using simultaneously for the first time to our knowledge, a one dimensional soft x-ray imager from which the radiation front transit time and curvature are measured and also a broadband x-ray spectrometer to infer its temperature history. These constraining results are then successfully compared to those from simple analytical models [Cohen et al., Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 023007 (2020) and Hurricane et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 113303 (2006)] and from the three dimensional Lagrangian radiation-hydrodynamics code TROLL to get information on x-ray energy losses. Controlled compensation effects between the length, diameter, and nature of the tubes (governing these losses) are such that the radiation temperature drop along the tubes is eventually the same for these two similar shots.