Experimental Study of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Plasma

A clear experimental observation of Rayleigh-Taylor, flute-type instability in a high-temperature plasma expanding across a magnetic field has been made with time-delay, Kerr cell, sequence photography. The wavelength and growth rate of the instability are measured as a function of time for various values of external magnetic field and background gas pressure. With interface decelerations of about 109 m/sec2 the instability develops in 1–4 μsec with wavelengths of about 10−2 m. After 1–4 μsec the flutes grow with constant velocity.