Abstract

We have extended the technique of plasma temperature measurement by ratio of isoelectronic lines, recently developed with nanosecond laser plasmas, to the diagnosis of picosecond and subpicosecond plasmas. We have found a major benefit—particularly for short-pulse laser plasmas—that even where level populations are far from steady-state values, the ratio of isoelectronic lines may be nearly steady state, which considerably simplifies interpretation. We describe theoretical and experimental investigations for plasmas created from solid targets by 100-fs–10-ps high-intensity laser pulses and report the experimental application of the technique to λ = 1.05-μm laser pulses at 10¹⁶ W cm⁻².

© 1996 Optical Society of America

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