Abstract

The development of lasers delivering ultrashort pulses at the multigigawatt power level opens new perspectives for the study of lasermatter interaction at very high intensities. When an intense laser is focused onto the surface of a solid, a high temperature, x-ray emitting plasma is produced. Laser energy is absorbed over a length comparable to the skin depth of the target material. Due to the short laser pulse duration, this leads to rapid ionization before any significant hydrodynamic motion can occur. These short-lived plasmas look very promising for the generation of picosecond or sub-picosecond x-ray pulses. The availability of such x-ray pulses will have significant impact in many areas involving time-resolved measurements in plasma and solid state physics. We will review some recent experiments dealing with x-ray conversion efficiency, reflectivity, energy transport, absorption and nonlinear processes using optical (pump/probe) diagnostics and x-ray spectroscopy.

© 1992 IQEC