Measuring Ultrafast Dynamics in a Dense Plasma
ORAL
Abstract
Transient effects were measured in free standing metal film (200-400 nm) following direct femtosecond laser heating at 1-10x10$^{14}$W/cm$^{2}$. Ultrafast electron-ion equilibration dynamics in the dense plasma were studied with a single-shot measurement of the time-dependent reflectivity and phase shift at the rear surface. The measurement revealed the dynamics of heat and shock waves on the picosecond time scale with sub-picosecond resolution. The experimental results were compared to the calculated reflectivity and phase shift derived from the output parameters (electron density and dc electron conductivity) of hydrodynamic simulations. We simulated our experiments using different equation of states and ionization models in the HYADES hydrodynamic code. Our experimental results allowed us to test the currently available models.
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Authors
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I.V. Churina
The Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science, Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin
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B. Cho
The Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science, Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin
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Aaron Bernstein
The Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science, Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, University of Texas at Austin
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T. Ditmire
The Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science, Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, University of Texas, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, Austin