Laser-plasma energy transport with high intensity short laser pulses

Journal article

In order to investigate the production of plasma with simultaneous high density and high degree of ionisation and to study laser-plasma energy transport, experiments have been undertaken to measure the plasma electron densities formed in a thin layer of aluminium buried below an overlay of plastic when the plastic overlay is irradiated by focussed lasers of wavelength (and pulse length) .53μm (20ps); .35μm (20ps) and .27 μm (50ps). For the .53μm and .35μm wavelengths, the shorter pulse length (20ps) results in higher time-averaged electron densities (up to 6 × 1022 cm-3) than for the .27μm wavelength experiments with 50 ps pulse length, but the production of hydrogen-like aluminium relative to helium-like is less with the shorter pulse-length.

Authors: Tallents, G; Key, M; Norreys, P; Tragin, N; Baldis, H

• Publisher: Publ by Int Soc for Optical Engineering
• Journal: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
• Volume: 1229
• Pages: 138-143
• Publication date: 1990-01-01
• ISSN: 0277-786X
• Language: English