Observation of Rayleigh-Taylor growth to short wavelengths on Nike

The uniform and smooth focal profile of the Nike KrF laser [S. Obenschain e t al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 2098 (1996)] was used to ablatively accelerate 40 m u m thick polystyrene planar targets with pulse shaping to minimize shock h eating of the compressed material. The foils had imposed small-amplitude si nusoidal wave perturbations of 60, 30, 20, and 12.5 mu m wavelength. The sh ortest wavelength is near the ablative stabilization cutoff for Rayleigh-Ta ylor growth. Modification of the saturated wave structure due to random las er imprint was observed. Excellent agreement was found between the two-dime nsional simulations and experimental data for most cases where the laser im print was not dominant. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X (99)02302-2].