Measurement of the angle, temperature and flux of fast electrons emitted from intense laser-solid interactions
Abstract
> High-intensity laser-solid interactions generate relativistic electrons, as well as high-energy (multi-MeV) ions and x-rays. The directionality, spectra and total number of electrons that escape a target-foil is dependent on the absorption, transport and rear-side sheath conditions. Measuring the electrons escaping the target will aid in improving our understanding of these absorption processes and the rear-surface sheath fields that retard the escaping electrons and accelerate ions via the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) mechanism. A comprehensive Geant4 study was performed to help analyse measurements made with a wrap-around diagnostic that surrounds the target and uses differential filtering with a FUJI-film image plate detector. The contribution of secondary sources such as x-rays and protons to the measured signal have been taken into account to aid in the retrieval of the electron signal. Angular and spectral data from a high-intensity laser-solid interaction are presented and accompanied by simulations. The total number of emitted electrons has been measured as 13$]]> with an estimated total energy of from a Cu target with 140 J of incident laser energy during a 20~\text{W}~\text{cm}-2$]]> interaction.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377815000835
- Bibcode:
- 2015JPlPh..81e4705R