Plasma Collision in a Gas Atmosphere

We present a study on the impact of a gas atmosphere on the collision of two counterpropagating plasmas (gold and carbon). Imaging optical Thomson scattering data of the plasma collision with and without helium in between have been obtained at the Omega laser facility. Without gas, we observed large...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-01, Vol.124 (2), p.025003-025003, Article 025003
Main Authors: Le Pape, S, Divol, L, Huser, G, Katz, J, Kemp, A, Ross, J S, Wallace, R, Wilks, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Carbon
Gold
Helium
Mach number
optical plasma measurements
plasma physics
plasma-wall interactions
Plasmas
Reduction
Thomson scattering
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Summary:We present a study on the impact of a gas atmosphere on the collision of two counterpropagating plasmas (gold and carbon). Imaging optical Thomson scattering data of the plasma collision with and without helium in between have been obtained at the Omega laser facility. Without gas, we observed large scale mixing of colliding gold and carbon ions. Once ambient helium is added, the two plasmas remain separated. The difference in ionic temperature is consistent with a reduction of the maximum Mach number of the flow from M=7 to M=4. It results in a reduction of a factor ∼10 of the counterstreaming ion-ion mean free path. By adding a low-density ambient gas, it is possible to control the collision of two high-velocity counterstreaming plasma, transitioning from an interpenetrating regime to a regime in agreement with a hydrodynamic description.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.025003