title: Collimation of dense plasma jets created by low-energy laser pulses and studied with soft x-ray laser interferometry.
abstract: The physical mechanisms driving the collimation of dense plasma jets created by low-energy ( approximately 0.6 J) laser pulse irradiation of triangular grooves were studied for different target materials using soft-x-ray interferometry and hydrodynamic code simulations. The degree of collimation of jets created by irradiating C, Al, Cu, and Mo targets at intensities of I=1x10(12) W cm(-2) with 120 ps laser pulses was observed to increase significantly with the atomic number. Radiation cooling is found to be the cause of the increased collimation, while the main effect of the increase in mass is to slow the jet evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University, NSF ERC for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Purvis
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grava
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Filevich
authors.forename: Duncan P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Vyacheslav N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Shlyaptsev
authors.forename: Jorge J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Rocca