Study of Rayleigh–Taylor growth in laser irradiated planar SiO2 targets at ignition-relevant conditions

Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) growth experiments were performed on the OMEGA laser [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] using planar SiO2 targets seeded with a single mode 60- μ m wavelength perturbation driven at peak laser intensities up to 9 × 1014 W/cm2. These are the first RT measurements in SiO2 at conditions relevant to direct-drive inertial confinement fusion ignition. The measured average modulation growth rates agree with the 2-D hydrodynamics code DRACO, providing an important step in the development of target ablators that are robust to RT growth and hot- electron preheat considerations when driven at the intensities required to achieve thermonuclear ignition.