Experimental study of the interaction of two laser-driven radiative shocks at the PALS laser

Radiative shocks (RS) are complex phenomena which are ubiquitous in astrophysical environments. The study of such hypersonic shocks in the laboratory, under controlled conditions, is of primary interest to understand the physics at play and also to check the ability of numerical simulations to reproduce the experimental results. In this context, we conducted, at the Prague Asterix Laser System facility (PALS), the first experiments dedicated to the study of two counter-propagating radiative shocks propagating at non-equal speeds up to 25-50 km/s in noble gases at pressures ranging between 0.1 and 0.6 bar. These experiments highlighted the interaction between the two radiative precursors. This interaction is qualitatively but not quantitatively described by 1D simulations. Preliminary results obtained with XUV spectroscopy leading to the estimation of shock temperature and ion charge of the plasma are also presented.