Bremsstrahlung emission and plasma characterization driven by moderately relativistic laser-plasma interactions

• Published in: Plasma physics and controlled fusion Vol. 63; no. 3; pp. 35004 - 35013
• Main Authors: Singh, Sushil, Armstrong, Chris D, Kang, Ning, Ren, Lei, Liu, Huiya, Hua, Neng, Rusby, Dean R, Klimo, Ond ej, Versaci, Roberto, Zhang, Yan, Sun, Mingying, Zhu, Baoqiang, Lei, Anle, Ouyang, Xiaoping, Lancia, Livia, Laso Garcia, Alejandro, Wagner, Andreas, Cowan, Thomas, Zhu, Jianqiang, Schlegel, Theodor, Weber, Stefan, McKenna, Paul, Neely, David, Tikhonchuk, Vladimir, Kumar, Deepak
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.03.2021
• Subjects: bremsstrahlung emission; high intensity laser-plasma interaction; laser absorption and plasma characterization; Physics; plasma optics; Plasma Physics
• ISSN: 0741-3335; 1361-6587
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6587/abcf7e

Relativistic electrons generated by the interaction of petawatt-class short laser pulses with solid targets can be used to generate bright x-rays via bremsstrahlung. The efficiency of laser energy transfer into these electrons depends on multiple parameters including the focused intensity and pre-plasma level. This paper reports experimental results from the interaction of a high intensity petawatt-class glass laser pulses with solid targets at a maximum intensity of 1019 W cm−2. In-situ measurements of specularly reflected light are used to provide an upper bound of laser absorption and to characterize focused laser intensity, the pre-plasma level and the generation mechanism of second harmonic light. The measured spectrum of electrons and bremsstrahlung radiation provide information about the efficiency of laser energy transfer.