Direct drive acceleration of planar liquid deuterium targets

The Nike laser (similar to 2-3 kJ, similar to 10(14) W/cm(2)) has been used to ablatively accelerate planar liquid deuterium targets. These experiment s are designed to test some aspects of a high gain direct drive target desi gn. The target consists of a low-density foam that is filled with liquid de uterium and covered with a thin polyimide membrane. The measured target tra jectory agrees well with one-dimensional (1D) simulations. The growth of th e areal mass modulations were measured with a new, 1.26 keV x-ray backlight er. The modulations appear later and grow to a smaller amplitude when the f oot of the laser pulse is made spatially smoother. A thin layer of gold on the front of the target reduces the modulations. The results are compared w ith 2D modeling. [S1070-664X(99)96205-5].