High intensity 30 femtosecond laser pulse interaction with thin foils

Journal Article · Fri Feb 20 04:00:00 EST 1998 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.55231· OSTI ID:21185575

Giulietti, A; Barbini, A; Gizzi, L A ^[1]; Chessa, P ^[2]; Giulietti, D; Teychenne, D ^[3]

---

1. Instituto di Fisica Atomica e Molecolare del CNR, Via del Giardino, 7, 56127 Pisa (Italy)
2. Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquee, - ENSTA, Palaiseau (France)
3. Dipartimento di Fisca, Universita di Pisa (Italy)

An experimental investigation on the interaction of 30 femtosecond laser pulses with 0.1 and 1.0 {mu}m thick plastic foils has been performed at intensities from 5x10{sup 16} to 5x10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}. The interaction physics was found to be definitely different whether the nanosecond low intensity prepulses led to an early plasma formation or not. In the first case high reflectivity and very low transmittivity were observed, together with second and three-half harmonic generation. In absence of precursor plasma, with increasing intensity, reflectivity dropped to low values, while transmittivity increased up to an almost complete transparency. No harmonic generation was observed in this latter condition, while ultra-fast ionisation was inferred by the blue-shift of the transmitted pulse. Finally, intense hard X-ray emission was detected at the maximum laser intensity level. Current theories or numerical simulations cannot explain the observed transparency. A new model of magnetically induced optical transparency (MIOT) is briefly introduced.

• OSTI ID: 21185575
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 426; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES
FOILS
HARD X RADIATION
HARMONIC GENERATION
IONIZATION
LASER RADIATION
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LASERS
OPACITY
PLASMA PRODUCTION
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASTICS
REFLECTIVITY