Laser-Driven Rayleigh-Taylor Instability: Plasmonics Effects and   Three-Dimensional Structures
  The acceleration of dense targets driven by the radiation pressure of high-intensity lasers leads to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) with rippling of the interaction surface. Using a simple model it is shown that the self-consistent modulation of the radiation pressure caused by a sinusoidal rippling affects substantially the wavevector spectrum of the RTI depending on the laser polarization. The plasmonic enhancement of the local field when the rippling period is close to a laser wavelength sets the dominant RTI scale. The nonlinear evolution is investigated by three dimensional simulations, which show the formation of stable structures with "wallpaper" symmetry. 
Andrea Sgattoni, Stefano Sinigardi, Luca Fedeli, Francesco Pegoraro,   Andrea Macchi
physics.plasm-ph physics.optics