title: Observation of collisionless shocks in laser-plasma experiments.
abstract: The propagation in a rarefied plasma (n(e) < or approximately 10(15) cm(-3)) of collisionless shock waves and ion-acoustic solitons, excited following the interaction of a long (tauL approximately 470 ps) and intense (I approximately 10(15) W cm(-2)) laser pulse with solid targets, has been investigated via proton probing techniques. The shocks' structures and related electric field distributions were reconstructed with high spatial and temporal resolution. The experimental results were interpreted within the framework of the nonlinear wave description based on the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. l.romagnani@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romagnani
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Bulanov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borghesi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Audebert
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gauthier
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Löwenbrück
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mackinnon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pretzler
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toncian
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Willi