The Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) of a laser-accelerated
ablative surface of a thin plasma layer in an inertial fusion energy
(IFE) target with incompressible electrically conducting plasma in the
presence of a transverse magnetic field is investigated using linear
stability analysis. A simple theory based on Stokes-lubrication
approximation is proposed. It is shown that the effect of a transverse
magnetic field is to reduce the growth rate of RTI considerably over
the value it would have in the absence of a magnetic field. This is
useful in the extraction of IFE efficiently.
