Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser-solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser-plasma-based particle accelerators,the creation of high-energy-de...Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser-solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser-plasma-based particle accelerators,the creation of high-energy-density matter,understanding planetary science,and laser-driven fusion energy.However,experimental efforts in this regime have been limited by the lack of accessibility of over-critical densities and the poor spatiotemporal resolution of conventional diagnostics.Over the last decade,the advent of femtosecond brilliant hard X-ray free-electron lasers(XFELs)has opened new horizons to overcome these limitations.Here,for the first time,we present full-scale spatiotemporal measurements of solid-density plasma dynamics,including preplasma generation with tens of nanometer scale length driven by the leading edge of a relativistic laser pulse,ultrafast heating and ionization at the main pulse arrival,the laser-driven blast wave,and transient surface return current-induced compression dynamics up to hundreds of picoseconds after interaction.These observations are enabled by utilizing a novel combination of advanced X-ray diagnostics including small-angle X-ray scattering,resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy,and propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging simultaneously at the European XFEL-HED beamline station.展开更多
基金partially supported by the Helmholtz Imaging platform through the project“SmartPhase.”。
文摘Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser-solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser-plasma-based particle accelerators,the creation of high-energy-density matter,understanding planetary science,and laser-driven fusion energy.However,experimental efforts in this regime have been limited by the lack of accessibility of over-critical densities and the poor spatiotemporal resolution of conventional diagnostics.Over the last decade,the advent of femtosecond brilliant hard X-ray free-electron lasers(XFELs)has opened new horizons to overcome these limitations.Here,for the first time,we present full-scale spatiotemporal measurements of solid-density plasma dynamics,including preplasma generation with tens of nanometer scale length driven by the leading edge of a relativistic laser pulse,ultrafast heating and ionization at the main pulse arrival,the laser-driven blast wave,and transient surface return current-induced compression dynamics up to hundreds of picoseconds after interaction.These observations are enabled by utilizing a novel combination of advanced X-ray diagnostics including small-angle X-ray scattering,resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy,and propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging simultaneously at the European XFEL-HED beamline station.
