Study of fast electron transport and ionization in isochorically heated solid foil

Interaction of a high-power, short-pulse laser with a solid target generates a significant number of relativistic MeV electrons, subsequently heating the target isochorically in the transport process. Fast electron driven ionization of a solid titanium foil was studied by measuring Ti K-alpha x-rays and performing 2-D particle-in-cell simulations. The experiment was performed using the 50 TW Leopard short-pulse laser at UNR's Nevada Terawatt Facility. The 15 J, 0.35 ps laser was tightly focused on to a various sized, 2-$\mu $m thick Ti foil within a 8 $\mu $m spot to achieve the peak intensity of \textasciitilde 2\texttimes 10$^{\mathrm{19}}$ W/cm$^{\mathrm{2}}$. The transport of the fast electrons produced 4.51 keV Ti K-alpha x-rays. The yields and 2-D monochromatic images were recorded with a Bragg crystal spectrometer and a spherically bent crystal imager. The ionization degree of the heated foil was determined to be \textasciitilde 15 from the ionized K-alpha lines and the missing emission in the images. 2-D PIC simulations using a PICLS code with a radiation transport module were performed to calculate the K-alpha profiles and spectra. Details of the experiment and comparison will be presented.