Rayleigh-Taylor growth measurements of three-dimensional modulations in a nonlinear regime

An understanding of the nonlinear evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability is essential in inertial confinement fusion and astrophysics. The nonlinear RT growth of three-dimensional (3-D) broadband nonuniformities was measured near saturation levels using x-ray radiography in planar foils accelerated by laser light. The initial 3-D target modulations were seeded by laser nonuniformities and subsequently amplified by the RT instability. The measured modulation Fourier spectra and nonlinear growth velocities are in excellent agreement with those predicted by Haan's model [S. Haan, Phys. Rev. A 39, 5812 (1989)]. These spectra and growth velocities are insensitive to initial conditions. In a real-space analysis, the bubble merger was quantified by a self-similar evolution of bubble size distributions, in agreement with the Alon-Oron-Shvarts theoretical predictions [D. Oron Phys. Plasmas 8, 2883 (2001)].