Direct observation of mass oscillations due to ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in plastic targets

We report the first direct experimental observation of the ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. It manifests itself in oscillations of areal mass that occur during the shock transit time, which are caused by the "rocket effect" or dynamic overpressure characteristic of interaction between the laser absorption zone and the ablation front. With the 4-ns-long Nike KrF laser pulse and our novel diagnostic technique (monochromatic x-ray imaging coupled to a streak camera) we were able to register a peak and a valley of the areal-mass variation before the observed onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor growth.