X-ray image and x-ray burst features of under-dense plasma produced in high-density gas jets on the Leopard Laser at UNR
ORAL
Abstract
Results of Ar and Kr gas-puff experiments performed on the high-power Leopard laser at UNR are presented. The Leopard laser operated in two regimes: 350 fs, 40 TW pulse or 0.8 ns, 25 GW pulse with wavelength of 1.057 $\mu $m. A supersonic linear nozzle was compared with a cylindrical sub-sonic nozzle. Diagnostics included two sets of filtered Si-diodes, x-ray pinhole cameras, x-ray spectrometers, and PCDs. Specifically, x-ray images and structure of x-ray bursts are investigated and compared as a function of the linear or cylindrical gas jet, laser pulse duration, and target gas. Strong anisotropy with respect to laser beam polarization was observed in the x-ray output of the linear gas jet. Also, the addition of Kr to an Ar gas jet increased the intensity of the x-ray output compared to a pure Ar jet. The importance of analysis of x-ray burst features for better understanding the mechanisms of the laser energy to x-ray conversion efficiency and future research directions are discussed.
*The work was supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Basic Research Award {\#} HDTRA1-13-1-0033, to University of Nevada, Reno, and in part by the DOE/NNSA Cooperative agreements DE-NA0001984 and DE-NA0002075.
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