The creation of radiation dominated plasmas using laboratory extreme ultra-violet lasers

Abstract

Ionization in experiments where solid targets are irradiated by high irradiance extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lasers is examined. Free electron degeneracy effects on ionization in the presence of a high EUV flux of radiation is shown to be important. Overlap of the physics of such plasmas with plasma material under compression in indirect inertial fusion is explored. The design of the focusing optics needed to achieve high irradiance (up to 10 14 Wcm À2 ) using an EUV capillary laser is presented.

Soft X-ray laser ablation for nano-scale chemical mapping microanalysis

“…The plasma induced by XUV/SXR pulses is mainly generated as a consequence of the photoeffect (electron-hole or excitonic "plasma") and in less proportion by the collisional absorption, i.e., inverse Bremsstrahlung. 96 Emission spectra from plasmas produced by short 97 as well as ultra-short 98,99 pulses of shortwavelength lasers have been explored in not so many studies. Peculiar observations have been reported, which require more extensive studies in the future.…”

Extreme ultraviolet laser ablation of solid targets

“…The direct ablation of solid targets with short wavelength laser light may have applications in the manufacture of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) [13] and the plasmas produced have interesting properties as they are typically of high solid density, but low temperature (< 10 eV). Such plasmas are referred to as 'warm dense matter' and are relevant to the physics of the interiors of large planets and to laser fusion [14]. We report results here on the ablation craters formed by the focused extreme ultra-violet (EUV) laser light at 46.9 nm.…”