The transition to turbulence is surely one of the most fascinating phenomena known to science. From a fundamental perspective, new experimental means for studying this transition may open the way to a deeper understanding of turbulence. The specific context of this paper is the use of x-ray Fresnel zone plates for imaging turbulent plasmas. These plasmas are created at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA, by shocking matter with multiple intense laser-beam pulses. Such plasmas will exhibit a transition to turbulence, via certain hydrodynamic instabilities such as the Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities. In addition to the handle that such systems may provide on turbulence, there is also the anticipated future application to inertial confinement fusion. The present paper demonstrates that x-ray Fresnel zone plates have the necessary spatial resolution and field of view, with the associated NIF optical system having sufficient time resolution, to study the previously mentioned hydrodynamic instabilities in laser-produced plasmas. Experimental demonstrations of this capability lie in the future, with the present paper giving us a glimpse into what will soon be possible.

---

---

 Add Comment

You must log in to add comments.