# Counter-propagating radiative shock experiments on the Orion laser

## TL;DR

This paper reports on experiments with counter-propagating radiative shocks at the Orion laser, providing data to benchmark numerical models and improve understanding of shock interactions in high-energy density physics.

## Contribution

It introduces a new experimental platform for studying 3D radiative shock interactions and validates 2D radiation hydrodynamic simulations against experimental data.

## Key findings

- Good agreement between experiments and simulations
- Detailed observation of shock collision dynamics
- Measurement of radiative precursors in xenon gas

## Abstract

We present new experiments to study the formation of radiative shocks and the interaction between two counter-propagating radiative shocks. The experiments were performed at the Orion laser facility which was used to drive shocks in xenon inside large aspect ratio gas-cells. The collision between the two shocks and their respective radiative precursors, combined with the formation of inherently 3-dimensional shocks, provides a novel platform particularly suited for benchmarking of numerical codes. The dynamics of the shocks before and after the collision were investigated using point-projection X-ray backlighting while, simultaneously, the electron density in the radiative precursor was measured via optical laser interferometry. Modelling of the experiments using the 2-D radiation hydrodynamic codes NYM/PETRA show a very good agreement with the experimental results.