Design of a high-resolution Rayleigh-Taylor experiment with the Crystal Backlighter Imager on the National Ignition Facility
The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability affects a vast range of High Energy Density (HED) length scales, spanning from supernova explosions (1013 m) to inertial confinement fusion (10-6 m). In inertial confinement fusion, the RT instability is known to induce mixing or turbulent transition, which in turn cools the hot spot and hinders ignition. The fine-scale features of the RT instability, which are