Fronts and instabilities in laser ablation, organic semiconductors and quantum media

Abstract: The concept of a front plays a decisive role in various elds in physics and beyond. In the present thesis we study key aspects of front dynamics and stability in the context of laser plasmas, organic semiconductors and quantum media.In laser plasmas, we investigate the hydrodynamic instabilities developing at the fronts of laser deagration (ablation). Using direct numerical simulations, we nd noticeable velocity increase of the Rayleigh-Taylor bubble at a deagration front in comparison with that arising at an inert interface. We study the Darrieus-Landau instability of laser deagration accounting for the specific features of the fusion plasmas: strong temperature dependence of the thermal conduction and sonic velocities of the plasma flow. We find that these features of the laser plasmas make the Darrieus-Landau instability stronger by a factor of 3 in comparison with the well-known case of slow flames. We clarify the experimental conditions required for observations of the Darrieus-Landau instability in laser plasmas.In quantum plasmas, we study interplay of the classical and quantum eects for shock waves and for the pseudo-ferrouid instability. For shocks in quantum plasmas, we demonstrate transition from a monotonic Burgers classical shock structure to the train of oscillations (solitons) in the quantum limit. We obtain also a counterpart of the ferrouid instability in quantum magnetized plasmas due to collective spin-dynamics in an external magnetic eld. We discuss importance of the instability for thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs in the Supernovae Ia events.In organic semiconductors, we develop the theoretical and numerical model of the electrochemical doping fronts. The study is based on the modifed mobilitydiffusion approach to the complex semiconductor plasmas consisting of holes, electrons, positive and negative ions. The m odel describes the doping front structure and predicts the front velocity in a very good agreement with the experiments. We discover a new fundamental instability, which distorts the doping fronts and speeds-up the process considerably. We demonstrate how the instability may be controlled and used to improve performance of optoelectronic devices.Finally, we study avalanches of spin-switching in crystals of nanomagnets, which may be described as magnetic deagration and detonation due to striking resemblance to the respective combustion phenomena. We find that magnetic deflagration becomes unstable and propagates in a pulsating regime when potential barrier of the spin-switching is sufficiently high in comparison with the energy release in the process. We also demonstrate the possibility of magnetic detonation in the crystals, which explains the astounding effect of ultra-fast spin-avalanches encountered in recent experiments. We find that magnetic detonation does not destroy the unique properties of the crystals, a very important conclusion in view of possible applications of nanomagnets in quantum computing.