PICOSECOND DYNAMICS OF A HOT SOLID-DENSITY PLASMA

We present an experimental study of the dynamics of a hot near-solid-d ensity plasma generated by the interaction of a very-high-contrast las er pulse (main-pulse-to-prepuIse intensity ratio, -10(10)) with solids at intensities of as high as 10(18) W/cm(2). Time-resolved spectrosco py with a temporal resolution of 1.6 ps is used to follow line broaden ing, ionization, and recombination time histories. It is shown that th ermal line emission can still be very short even at these high laser i ntensities and that the K-alpha radiation is surprisingly long. (C) 19 96 Optical Society of America