Abstract

We present an experimental study of the dynamics of a hot near-solid-density plasma generated by the interaction of a very-high-contrast laser pulse (main-pulse-to-prepulse intensity ratio, ∼10¹⁰) with solids at intensities of as high as 10¹⁸ W/cm². Time-resolved spectroscopy with a temporal resolution of 1.6 ps is used to follow line broadening, ionization, and recombination time histories. It is shown that thermal line emission can still be very short even at these high laser intensities and that the K_α radiation is surprisingly long.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

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