“Directional Bremsstrahlung from a Ti laser-produced X-ray source at relativistic intensities in the 3-12 keV range”, by F. Zamponi et al., PRL, 105, 085001 (2010).
Ultraintense laser-matter interactions is a growing field of experimental and theoretical research due to the promising applications in laser fusion and novel radiation and particle sources. These applications are driving the recently proposed European Research Infrastructures HiPER[1] and ELI[2].
In the laser-matter interaction process, a significant part of the laser energy is taken by the so-called fast electrons giving rise to very intense currents of relativistic electrons, well above the Alfven limit. A full description of these phenomena is still lacking and is the subject of extensive experimental and theoretical research.
Il paper just published on Physical Review Letters[3] describes a new experimental study of the dynamics of these fast electrons based upon the measurement of the X-ray radiation emitted by fast electrons during transport in matter.
Thanks to a new technique developed at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory in Pisa[4] it was possible to identify the contribution of directional Bremsstrahlung, decoupling it from the contribution due to isotropic fluorescence emission typically used so far for these class of measurements.
These results open the way to a new investigation tool and extend the potential applications of plasma produced by laser-plasma interactions at relativistic intensities.
The experimental campaign was carried out by researchers of the ILIL-INO Lab in Pisa, in collaboration with the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität (Jena) in the LASERLAB[5] framework for access to laser facilities. This activity is also part of National MIUR funded programmes (PRIN e FIRB) ed EU-FP7 funded programmes (HiPER).
Leonida A. GIZZI
la.gizzi@ino.it
http://ilil.ino.it
[1] http://www.hiper-laser.org
[2] http://www.extreme-light-infrastructure.eu/
[3] http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i8/e085001
[4] http://ilil.ino.it
[5] http://www.laserlab-europe.net/
Visit the explicative Web page
News by Gizzi Leonida Antonio