title: Metal nanoplasmas as bright sources of hard X-ray pulses.
abstract: We report significant enhancements in light coupling to intense-laser-created solid plasmas via surface plasmon and "lightning rod" effects. We demonstrate this in metal nanoparticle-coated solid targets irradiated with 100 fs, 806 nm laser pulses, focused to intensities approximately 10(14)-10(15) W cm(-2). Our experiments show a 13-fold enhancement in hard x-ray yield (10-200 keV) emitted by copper nanoparticle plasmas formed at the focal volume. A simple model explains the observed enhancement quantitatively and provides pointers to the design of structured surfaces for maximizing such emissions.
authors.affiliation: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India.
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Rajeev
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taneja
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ayyub
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.forename: G Ravindra
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Kumar