X-ray spectroscopy diagnostic of a plasma produced by femtosecond laser pulses irradiating a cluster target

Abstract

The parameters of a plasma produced upon the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with cluster targets are measured by the methods of X-ray spectroscopy. The dependence of the plasma parameters on the initial properties of a cluster target (the design of a supersonic nozzle, the average size of clusters, the spatial inhomogeneity) and the laser pulse properties (its duration and contrast) is studied. The plasma diagnostics is performed using the model of formation of emission spectra, which was proposed earlier and includes a number of fitting parameters, which provide good agreement with experimental spectra. The systematic experimental studies performed by us showed that our model of cluster heating by ultrashort pulses is indeed a physical model, and the fitting parameters represent the average values of plasma parameters in the corresponding space-time regions.