Generation of a sharp density increase in radiation transport between high-Z and low-Z plasmas

Abstract A sharp density increase (referred to as density incrustation) of the Au plasmas in the radiative cooling process of high-Z Au plasmas confined by low-Z CH plasmas is found through the radiative hydrodynamic simulations. The temperature of Au plasmas changes obviously in the cooling layer while the pressure remains constant. Consequently, the Au plasmas in the cooling layer are compressed, and the density incrustation is formed. It is also shown that when the high-Z plasma opacity decreases or the low-Z plasma opacity increases, the peak density of the density incrustation becomes lower and the thickness of the density incrustation becomes wider. This phenomenon is crucial to the Rayleigh–Taylor instability at the interface of high-Z and low-Z plasmas, since the density variation of Au plasmas has a considerable influence on the Atwood number of the interface.