D. Jung, L.A. Gizzi, L. Labate, D. Neely, M.N. Notley, P.P. Rajev, M. Roth, G. Gregori

Experimental characterization of picosecond laser interaction with solid targets

Phys. Rev. E 77, 056403 (2008)

We have characterized the plasma produced by a picosecond laser pulse using x-ray spectroscopy. High resolution high-sensitivity spectra of K-shell emission from a Ti plasma have been obtained, showing a strong contribution from multiply ionized ions. Hydrodynamic and collisional-radiative codes are used to extract the plasma temperature and density from these measurements. We show that our measurements can provide benchmarks for particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of preplasma conditions in ultraintense laser-matter interactions.