Laser-produced aluminum plasma expansion inside a plastic plasma envelope
Previous experimental results demonstrated that the plasma pressure decreases with the growing atomic number of the target material. In this context, a question arose if the Al plasma outflow could be collimated using the plastic plasma as a compressor. To solve this problem, an experiment using a plastic target with an Al cylindrical insert was performed. The focal spot diameter substantially larger than that of the insert ensured simultaneous heating both target materials. This experiment proved that a production of Al plasma jets collimated by an action of outer plastic plasma is feasible [Kasperczuk et al., Laser Part. Beams 30, 1 (2012)]. The results of investigations presented here provide additional information on distributions of electron temperature in the outflowing plasma and time and space characteristics of ion emission, both registered at bare and constrained-flow Al targets. The experiment was carried out at the Prague asterix laser system iodine laser facility. The laser provided a 250 ps (full width at half maximum) pulse with the energy of 130 J at the third harmonic frequency ({lambda}{sub 3} = 0.438 {mu}m). A plastic target with an Al cylindrical insert of 400 {mu}m in diameter as well as a bare Al target (for comparison) was used. The focal spot diameter ({Phi}{sub L}) 1200 {mu}m ensured the lateral pressure effect of the plastic plasma strong enough to guarantee the effective Al plasma compression. The electron temperature measurements have shown that such Al plasma compression is accompanied by the increase of its temperature, dominance of which starts at distance of 0.5 mm from the target surface. Measurements of ion emission characteristics confirm the earlier numerical simulation prediction that in these conditions the plasma expansion geometry is closer to planar. The constrained Al plasma jet is very narrow and its axial velocity is considerably larger than the velocity of freely expanding Al plasma stream. It means that the plastic plasma envelope, besides the Al plasma compression, also strongly accelerates the Al plasma in its axial motion.