Measurement of the angle, temperature and flux of fast electrons emitted from intense laser–solid interactions

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 el...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plasma physics 2015-10, Vol.81 (5), Article 475810505
Main Authors: Rusby, D. R., Wilson, L. A., Gray, R. J., Dance, R. J., Butler, N. M. H., MacLellan, D. A., Scott, G. G., Bagnoud, V., Zielbauer, B., McKenna, P., Neely, D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Diagnostic systems
Electrons
Energetic Electrons in Space and Laboratory Plasmas
Energy measurement
Filtration
Foils
Lasers
Plasma physics
X-rays
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Summary: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 $2.6\times 10^{13}$ with an estimated total energy of $12\pm 1~\text{J}$ from a $100~{\rm\mu}\text{m}$ Cu target with 140 J of incident laser energy during a $4\times 10^{20}~\text{W}~\text{cm}^{-2}$ interaction.
ISSN:0022-3778
1469-7807
DOI:10.1017/S0022377815000835