During September 6th-16th, Dr. Francisco Suzuki-Vidal and Dr. Thomas Clayson, two experimental physicists in Laboratory Plasma Astrophysics of Imperial College London, UK, visited SIOM at the invitation of National Laboratory on High Power Laser and Physics.

On September 7th, Dr. Thomas Clayson presented a talk entitled “Magnetically-Driven Radiative Shock Experiments for Laboratory Astrophysics” at the Shang-Guang Academic Salon. In the talk, he presented the latest experimental results of radiative shocks, using an “inverse liner” configuration on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility (~1.4 MA in 240 ns) at Imperial College London and also using the Orion laser facility in the UK. After that, he introduced the experiments performed in a variety of different gases (Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe at pressures 1-50 mbar) to produce shock hydrodynamics. This new configuration for producing radiative shocks provides a unique platform for numerical validation and laboratory astrophysics applications.

 Dr. Francisco Suzuki-Vidal currently leads experiments with dense plasma with pulsed power discharges and high power lasers. As the international physics user, his group successfully carried out the experiment on laboratory astrophysics with Sheng-Guang (SG) II laser facility during September 6th-15th. “The entire team at SG-II has been extremely helpful and professional during our first week of experiments at SG-II”, Dr. Francisco Suzuki-Vidal commended.

During their stay in SIOM, Dr. Francisco Suzuki-Vidal and Dr. Thomas Clayson were invited to visit National Laboratory on High Power Laser and Physics and discuss the target area of the laser facility as well as the physics experiments.

G-II laser facility in SIOM is the only high power laser facility in China open for the international users and it has become one of the windows for academic exchanges for international physics scientists.