Hard X-ray and Hot Electron Production from Intense Laser Irradiation of Wavelength Scale Particles

Authors

Thomas D. Donnelly, Harvey Mudd CollegeFollow
M. Rust '01, Harvey Mudd CollegeFollow
I. Weiner '01, Harvey Mudd CollegeFollow
M. Allen, University of California - Berkeley
R. A. Smith, Imperial College
C. A. Steinke, Harvard University
S. Wilks, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
J. Zweiback, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
T. E. Cowan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
T. Ditmire, University of Texas at Austin

Student Co-author

HMC Undergraduate

Document Type

Article

Department

Physics (HMC)

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

We have examined the production of hard x-rays from the irradiation of ~1 µm diameter water droplets with a 35 fs laser at an intensity of up to 7×10¹⁷ W cm^-2. We observe substantial x-ray production in the photon energy range above 100 keV and find that the implied hot electron temperatures from these micron-scale targets are significantly higher than electron temperatures observed from irradiation of solid planar plastic targets under nearly identical irradiation conditions. The observed enhancement of the hot electron temperature from droplets is consistent with hot electron spectra calculated from particle-in-cell simulations.

Rights Information

© 2001 Institute of Physics

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

DOI

10.1088/0953-4075/34/10/101

Recommended Citation

T.D. Donnelly, M. Rust, I. Weiner, M. Allen, R.A. Smith, C.A. Steinke, S. Wilks, J. Zweiback, T.E. Cowan and T. Ditmire, "Hard X-ray and Hot Electron Production from Intense Laser Irradiation of Wavelength Scale Particles," J. Phys. B 34, L313 (2001). doi: 10.1088/0953-4075/34/10/101