Measurements of Energy Transport Patterns in Solid Density Laser Plasma Interactions at Intensities of 5x10{sup 20} W cm{sup -2}

Journal Article · Fri Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.98.125002· OSTI ID:20951127

Lancaster, K L; Clarke, R J ^[1]; Green, J S; Murphy, C D; Norreys, P A ^[1]; Hey, D S; Akli, K U ^[2]; Davies, J R ^[3]; Freeman, R R ^[4]; Habara, H; Nakatsutsumi, M; Yabuuchi, T ^[5]; Key, M H ^[6]; Kodama, R ^[5]; Krushelnick, K ^[7]; Simpson, P; Zepf, M ^[8]; Stephens, R ^[9]; Stoeckl, C ^[10]

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1. CCLRC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon, OX11 0QX (United Kingdom)
2. Department of Applied Sciences, University of California, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616-8254 (United States)
3. GoLP/Centro de Fisica dos Plasmas, Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal)
4. Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1117 (United States)
5. Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, 565-0871 Osaka (Japan)
6. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
7. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)
8. Departments of Pure and Applied Physics, Queens University, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
9. General Atomics, P.O. Box 86508, San Diego, California 92186-5608 (United States)
10. Laboratory of Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)

K{sub {alpha}} x-ray emission, extreme ultraviolet emission, and plasma imaging techniques have been used to diagnose energy transport patterns in copper foils ranging in thickness from 5 to 75 {mu}m for intensities up to 5x10{sup 20} W cm{sup -2}. The K{sub {alpha}} emission and shadowgrams both indicate a larger divergence angle than that reported in the literature at lower intensities [R. Stephens et al., Phys. Rev. E 69, 066414 (2004)]. Foils 5 {mu}m thick show triple-humped plasma expansion patterns at the back and front surfaces. Hybrid code modeling shows that this can be attributed to an increase in the mean energy of the fast electrons emitted at large radii, which only have sufficient energy to form a plasma in such thin targets.

• OSTI ID: 20951127
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.125002; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COPPER
ELECTRONS
EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
FOILS
LASERS
PHOTON EMISSION
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA EXPANSION
SIMULATION
X RADIATION