Comment on "New probing techniques of radiative shocks, by C.Stehle et al"

TL;DR

This comment critically evaluates the claims of radiative precursor imaging in a previous study, arguing that the evidence is inconclusive and that the proposed probing technique may not be effective.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of prior experimental claims and offers new estimations of Xenon opacities, questioning the feasibility of the proposed imaging method.

Findings

Previous results are inconclusive for radiative precursor existence

21.2 nm backlighting unlikely to probe the precursor effectively

New opacity estimations challenge the proposed imaging technique

Abstract

In this comment, we discuss the possibility of imaging the radiative precursor of a strong shock with a 21.2 nm soft x-ray laser probe and we analyze the data presented in C.Stehle et al "New probing techniques of radiative shocks", (Optics Communications 285, 64, 2012) in order to derive some estimation of the achieved resolution. We show that the presented results are inconclusive for the existence of a radiative precursor. Furthermore, our best estimation of cold and warm Xenon VUV opacities tells that 21.2 nm backlighting would not be able to probe this radiative precursor.