The aim of this work is an experimental study of the development of perturbations of a gaseous interface impulsively accelerated by a plane shock wave. The experiments are performed in a double diaphragm shock tube, where the second diaphragm is a very thin Mylar film which can be initially bulged because of a pressure difference between the two gases. The shape of the leading front of the contact zone is measured at three locations along the tube using a transversal array of heat transfer gauges. After the shock passage, the evolution of the interface is sensitive to vorticity production and boundary layer effects so that the impulsive Rayleigh–Taylor theory is inadequate for the description of this evolution. In particular, the predicted perturbation reversal when the shock wave passes from the heavy gas to the light one may not occur because of the boundary layer effect.