Using XFELs for Probing of Complex Interaction Dynamics of Ultra-Intense Lasers with Solid Matter

Abstract

We demonstrate the potential of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) to advancethe understanding of complex plasma dynamics by allowing for the first time nanometer and femtosecond resolution at the same time in plasma diagnostics. Plasma phenomena on such short timescales are of high relevance for many fields of physics, in particular in the ultra-intense ultra-short laser interaction with matter. Highly relevant yet only partially understood phenomena may become directly accessible in experiment. These include relativistic laser absorption at solid targets, creation of energetic electrons and electron transport in warm dense matter, including the seeding and development of surface and beam instabilities, ambipolar expansion, shock formation, and dynamics at the surfaces or at buried layers. We demonstrate the potentials of XFEL plasma probing for high power laser matter interactions using exemplary the small angle X-ray scattering technique, focusing on general considerations for XFEL probing.

References in corpus (3)

• Towards radiation pressure acceleration of protons using linearly polarized ultrashort petawatt laser pulses
• Scheme for generation of fully-coherent, TW power level hard X-ray pulses from baseline undulators at the European X-ray FEL
• Ion heating dynamics in solid buried layer targets irradiated by ultra-short intense laser pulses

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Statically screened ion potential and Bohm potential in a quantum plasma
• The ion potential in warm dense matter: wake effects due to streaming degenerate electrons
• Weibel instability-mediated collisionless shocks in laser-irradiated dense plasmas:Prevailing role of the electrons in the turbulence generation
• Caustic structures in the spectrum of x-ray Compton scattering off electrons driven by a short intense laser pulse
• Observation of ultrafast solid-density plasma dynamics using femtosecond X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser
• Nanoscale femtosecond imaging of transient hot solid density plasmas with elemental and charge state sensitivity using resonant coherent diffraction
• Demonstration of full-scale spatio-temporal diagnostics of solid-density plasmas driven by an ultra-short relativistic laser pulse using an X-ray free-electron laser
• Probing the dynamics of solid density micro-wire targets after ultra-intense laser irradiation using a free-electron laser