Characterization of the preformed plasma for high-intensity laser-plasma interaction.
The interaction of a very intense, very short laser pulse is modified by the presence of a preformed plasma prior to the main short pulse. The preformed plasma is created by a small prepulse interacting with the target prior to the main pulse. The prepulse has been monitored using a water-cell-protected fast photodiode allowing on every shot a high dynamic measurement of the pulse profile. Simultaneously we have used time-resolved interferometry to look at the preformed plasma on a 300 TW, 700 fs laser. The two-dimensional density maps obtained have been compared with two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA. lepape2@llnl.gov
Sebastien
S
Le Pape
Ying Yin
YY
Tsui
Andrew
A
Macphee
Daniel
D
Hey
Pravesh
P
Patel
Andrew
A
Mackinnon
Mike
M
Key
Mingsheng
M
Wei
Tammy
T
Ma
Farhat N
FN
Beg
Rich
R
Stephens
Kramer
K
Akli
Tony
T
Link
Linn
L
Van-Woerkom
Rick R
RR
Freeman