Characterization of the ballistic properties of ejecta from laser shock-loaded samples using high resolution picosecond imaging

Anticipating the generation of high velocity debris from shock-loaded specimens and the damage that their impacts may cause to nearby equipment is a major safety issue in applications involving shock waves, such as pyrotechnics [1] or inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments on large scale laser facilities [2]. Microjetting is one of the processes governing such debris generation. It is due to the interaction of a shock wave with a free surface presenting geometrical defects such as pits, cavities, scratches, or grooves, leading to material ejection from these defects, in the form of thin jets expanding ahead of the main surface and breaking up into small particles [3]. Over the last few years, we have used laser shock loading in order to expand microjetting investigations over ranges of small spatial scales (μm scale), extremely high loading rates (~ 107 s-1) and very short pressure pulses (a few ns) [4-11]. Optical shadowgraphy and Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) have been used to measure both jet tip and planar surface velocities [4-6], while attempts to infer fragments size distributions, to be compared with model predictions, have been made using either fast transverse shadowgraphy [7] or ejecta recovery [8]. More recently, picosecond x-ray radiography has been used to provide estimates of the density gradients along the jets and of the total ejected mass at different times after shock breakout [9-11]. Here, we present the development of a new picosecond laser imaging diagnostic intended to overcome the limitations of our current transverse optical shadowgraphy setup. We describe our experimental setup and show the results of our first experiments performed using both visible (532 nm) and UV (355 nm) lightning of the sample. These results are compared to those obtained at LANL under high explosive loading using ultraviolet in-line Fraunhofer holography [12], and also to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed by our colleagues at lower space and time scales [15-18].