Laser heating of solid matter by light-pressure-driven shocks at ultrarelativistic intensities.
The heating of solid targets irradiated by 5 x 10(20) W cm(-2), 0.8 ps, 1.05 microm wavelength laser light is studied by x-ray spectroscopy of the K-shell emission from thin layers of Ni, Mo, and V. A surface layer is heated to approximately 5 keV with an axial temperature gradient of 0.6 microm scale length. Images of Ni Ly(alpha) show the hot region has <or=25 microm diameter. These data are consistent with collisional particle-in-cell simulations using preformed plasma density profiles from hydrodynamic modeling which show that the >100 G bar light pressure compresses the preformed plasma and drives a shock into the solid, heating a thin layer.
Akli
K U
KU
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
Hansen
S B
SB
Kemp
A J
AJ
Freeman
R R
RR
Beg
F N
FN
Clark
D C
DC
Chen
S D
SD
Hey
D
D
Hatchett
S P
SP
Highbarger
K
K
Giraldez
E
E
Green
J S
JS
Gregori
G
G
Lancaster
K L
KL
Ma
T
T
MacKinnon
A J
AJ
Norreys
P
P
Patel
N
N
Pasley
J
J
Shearer
C
C
Stephens
R B
RB
Stoeckl
C
C
Storm
M
M
Theobald
W
W
Van Woerkom
L D
LD
Weber
R
R
Key
M H
MH