Slowing down of an ablatively accelerated foil after impact on a stationary target

Recently, Baumung et al. (1995) observed a nontrivial slowing down of an ablatively accelerated aluminum foil striking a non-moving LiF crystal. We analyze these experiments using a radiation-hydrodynamic code. Isolating different involved phenomena we conclude that the behaviour observed in the experiment is caused by the radiative transport of heat energy from the hot ablated plasma into the cold accelerated aluminum flyer.