Laboratory experiment to study collisionless shock

We report the experimental results of collisionless shock formation in counterstreaming plasmas produced by a high-power laser system. The experiment was performed with Gekko XII HIPER laser system at the Institute of Laser Engineering. In order to model collisionless shocks in the universe, supersonic counterstreaming plasma flows were generated using a CH double-plane target. By using the self-emission measurements, we observed the emission increase toward the shock through the downstream. We also observed the density jump associated with the emission increase. The width of the transition region is shorter than the ion-ion mean-free-path calculated from the measured plasma velocity and density.