Linear stability analysis of an electron-radiative ablation front

Double ablation fronts develop in moderate-Z ablators where the absorption of radiation energy and electron heat fluxes occurs a two different locations (the two ablation fronts) [1]. Recent work has indicated that double ablation fronts in brominated plastic foils significantly improve the hydrodynamic stability properties by reducing the growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability [2]. In this work, we describe –for the first time- the linear stability analysis of the so-called electron-radiative ablation front [1]. This study includes the Rayleigh-Taylor, the Darrius-Landau and the thermal self-focussing instabilities