Soft X-Ray Laser Interferometry of Colliding Laser-Created Plasmas in Semicylindrical Cavities

Author

Purvis, Michael A. ; Grava, Jonathan ; Filevich, Jorge ; Marconi, Mario C. ; Dunn, James ; Moon, Stephen J. ; Shlyaptsev, Vyacheslav N. ; Jankowska, Elizabeth ; Rocca, Jorge J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO

Volume

36

Issue

4

fYear

2008

Firstpage

1134

Lastpage

1135

Abstract

A tabletop capillary discharge soft X-ray laser was used to acquire high-contrast interferograms that map the evolution of dense aluminum plasmas created by the laser irradiation of a 500-mum-diameter semicylindrical cavity with 120-ps optical laser pulses of ~1.1 times 10¹² - W ldr cm^-2 peak intensity. The measured electron density maps, which were compared with simulations, show that the plasma converges on axis where it collides to form a localized region with density exceeding 1 times 10²⁰ cm^-3.

Keywords

aluminium; plasma collision processes; plasma density; plasma diagnostics; plasma production by laser; Al; colliding laser-created plasmas; dense aluminum plasmas; electron density; high-contrast interferograms; laser irradiation; optical laser pulses; semicylindrical cavities; size 500 mum; soft X-ray laser interferometry; tabletop capillary discharge; time 120 ps; Aluminum; Density measurement; Electron optics; Optical interferometry; Optical pulses; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Plasma simulation; Plasma x-ray sources; X-ray lasers; Colliding plasmas; plasma diagnostics; soft X-ray laser; soft X-ray laser interferometry;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2008.924399

Filename

4599081