Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research

 

Date of this Version

12-25-1997

Comments

Published by Interperiodica. JETP-Letters, 66, 828-34 (1997); translated from Pis’ma Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, 787-92 (1997). HREF="http://www.maik.rssi.ru/cgi-bin/journal.pl?name=jetplet&page=main "http://www.maik.rssi.ru/cgi-bin/journal.pl?name=jetplet&page=main Published by Am Inst Physics.

Abstract

We report the first interferometric observations of the dynamics of electron–ion cavitation of relativistically self-focused intense 4 TW, 400 fs laser pulse in a He gas jet. The electron density in a channel 1 mm long and 30 mm in diameter drops by a factor of approximately 10 from the maximum value of ~8x1019 cm23. A high radial velocity of the plasma expansion, ~3.8x108 cm/s, corresponding to an ion energy of about 300 keV, is observed. The total energy of fast ions is estimated to be 6% of the laser pulse energy. The high-velocity radial plasma expulsion is explained by a charge separation due to the strong ponderomotive force. This experiment demonstrates a new possibility for direct transmission of a significant portion of the energy of a laser pulse to ions.

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