Figure 1

Schematic representations of (a) the optical configuration for shock generation, with a Fabry-Perot cavity to create a train of ultrafast imaging pulses for multi-frame imaging diagnostics. (b) The multi-layered target configuration used for this work, with a depiction of the drive laser excitation “ring” pattern and expected shock behavior. The optical configurations for (c) shadowgraph, and (d) dark-field imaging of the shocked sample. (e) Image sequence showing the decreasing illumination of each successive imaging pulse output from the Fabry-Perot cavity. The pulses were apertured with an iris after the cavity, and detected with CCDs using no electronic gain. All subsequent image sequences use the detector gain to standardize the image brightness between frames.