13–19 Jun 2015
University of Alberta
America/Edmonton timezone
Welcome to the 2015 CAP Congress! / Bienvenue au congrès de l'ACP 2015!

Characterization of Initial Target Conditions in High Intensity Laser Solids Interaction Experiments

17 Jun 2015, 19:10
2m
CCIS Ground Floor PCL lounge (University of Alberta)

CCIS Ground Floor PCL lounge

University of Alberta

Poster (Non-Student) / affiche (non-étudiant) Plasma Physics / Physique des plasmas (DPP) DPP Poster Session with beer / Session d'affiches, avec bière DPP

Speakers

Ying Tsui (University of Alberta) Zhijiang Chen (SLAC National Accelarator Laboratory)

Description

Terawatt and Petawatt class high power laser systems have pre-pulses that can significantly affect the interaction physics. For example, in cone-guided high-intensity laser experiments the preformed plasma could cause filamentation and beam refraction [1]. Pre-pulses arrive picoseconds to nanoseconds before the main laser pulse can significantly increase the initial scale length and electron temperature of solid targets. It is important to know the initial target conditions to both correctly interpret the experimental data and to provide realistic initial conditions for theoretical calculations. Pre-pulses that arrive in a nanosecond time scale prior to the main pulse can be measured using fast photodiodes [2-4]. Pre-pulses that arrive in picosecond time scale prior to the main pulse can in principle be characterized using a third order correlator [5]. However, on-shot pre-pulse diagnostic systems are often not readily available for users in many high-power laser facilities. Even if pre-pulse diagnostic systems are available they do not provide direct information about the degree of target disruption. Here, we present a technique for providing information about the degree of target disruption due to pre-pulses. We use a small portion of the laser beam as a probe beam to measure the change of target optical properties induced by the laser pre-pulse. An example using 30nm thin gold film targets will be presented here. The technique with sub-picosecond resolution allows us to detect pre-pulse heating down to 1/5 of the damage threshold energy density. [1] A.G. MacPhee et. al, Phys. Rev. Lett 104, 055002 (2010) [2] Y.Y. Tsui et al., “Prepulse Measurements in Fast Ignition Experiments”, 2010 CAP Congress Invited Talk [3] S. Le Pape et al., Opt. Lett. 34, 2997 (2009) [4]A. Yogo et. al., , Phys. Plasmas 14, 043104 (2007) [5] S. Keppler et al, Appl. Phys. B 104, 11 (2011)

Primary author

Zhijiang Chen (SLAC National Accelarator Laboratory)

Co-authors

Chandra Curry (University of Alberta) Dr Philippe Hering (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Dr Siegfrieed Glenzer (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Ying Tsui (University of Alberta)

Presentation materials

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