Bow shocks formed by a high-speed laser-driven plasma cloud interacting with a cylinder obstacle
Li Yan-Fei1, 9, Li Yu-Tong1, 8, 9, †, Yuan Da-Wei2, Fang Li1, Zhu Bao-Jun1, 9, Zhang Zhe1, Zhong Jia-Yong3, 8, Bo Han2, 3, Wei Hui-Gang2, Pei Xiao-Xing2, Zhao Jia-Rui1, Liu Chang3, Yuan Xiao-Xia3, Liao Guo-Qian1, Rhee Yong-Joo4, Lu Xin1, 9, Hua Neng5, Zhu Bao-Qiang5, Zhu Jian-Qiang5, 8, Fang Zhi-Heng6, Huang Xiu-Guang6, 8, Fu Si-Zu6, 8, Gang Zhao2, 8, Zhang Jie7, 8
       

(color online) Schematic view of the experimental setup. Four 240 J, 1 ns, 0.351 μm laser beams were incident on the surface of a mm3 CH planar target producing a supersonic plasma cloud, which interacts with the cylinder obstacle placed 1 mm apart. The interaction was measured by shadowgraphy and Nomarski interferometry with a 527 nm, 30 ps short laser probe. The two insets show the shadowgraph and interferogram of the initial target before shooting of the main laser pulses, respectively. The blue solid circles indicate the cross section of the obstacle.