Exploding Wire Arrays for Single-Shot Hydrodynamic Instability Experiments

The dynamics of high-energy-density plasmas are dominated by the formation of instabilities. These can be seen on at all scales, from the structure of proto-stellar jets and nebulae, to the inertial confinement fusion experiments where instabilities can mix cold, dense, high Z plasma into fusion fuel significantly reducing yield. Measuring how the hydrodynamic instabilities evolve is crucial to providing quantitative comparison to theory and simulations, yet many experiments are limited to exploring relatively small region of parameter space in Mach and Atwood numbers, or provide only a few measurements per experiment, requiring control of the initial conditions (ICs).