Modeling radiative-shocks created by laser-cluster interactions

Abstract

Radiative-shocks induced by laser-cluster interactions are modeled using radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. A good agreement - in both shock velocity and density profiles - is obtained between experiment and simulations, indicating that non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) radiative effects are important in the experimental regime examined, particularly at early times (≤30 ns) due to the elevated temperatures (≥35 eV). The enhanced NLTE radiative emission causes the shock to be reduced in amplitude, increased in width, and reduced in propagation velocity, while the amplitude of the radiative precursor is increased. As the density and temperature conditions are relatively modest, this potentially has important implications for the scalings that are used in laboratory-astrophysics to transform between laboratory and astrophysical scales, which do not hold for non-LTE systems.