Laser-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Plasmonic effects and three-dimensional structures

Abstract

The acceleration of dense targets driven by the radiation pressure of high-intensity lasers leads to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) with rippling of the interaction surface. Using a simple model it is shown that the self-consistent modulation of the radiation pressure caused by a sinusoidal rippling affects substantially the wave vector spectrum of the RTI, depending on the laser polarization. The plasmonic enhancement of the local field when the rippling period is close to a laser wavelength sets the dominant RTI scale. The nonlinear evolution is investigated by three-dimensional simulations, which show the formation of stable structures with "wallpaper" symmetry.