The Innovative Concepts Group has developed a new platform to study the physics of magnetized shocks. This platform uses a laser-driven foil as a pusher to launch a shock into a plasma produced from a gas jet within a magnetic field generated by MIFEDS, as illustrated in the figure. Experiments have also been carried out in collaboration with LLNL using a gas cell in place of a gas jet. The magnetic field can be orientated at any angle with respect to the shock and the gas density can be varied to access collisional and collisionless regimes. Proton radiography, optical probing, x-ray spectroscopy, and Thomson scattering can be used to diagnose the shock. The acceleration of the pusher foil has been simulated with the MHD codes HYDRA and FLASH, and the formation of collisionless, perpendicular chocks has been simulated with the PIC (particle-in-cell) code OSIRIS 1. Preliminary data on perpendicular collisional and marginally collisional shocks has been obtained. The group is currently collaborating with the University of California, San Diego, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan on a NIF Discovery Science experiment to study oblique, collisionless shocks using a similar setup with a gas cell in place of a gas jet.
VISRAD design of a perpendicular magnetized shock experiment.