THOMSON SCATTERING FROM 2-SPECIES LASER-PRODUCED PLASMAS (INVITED)

We report on recent Thomson scattering measurements from two ion speci es laser-produced plasmas. A flat disk coated with multiple alternate thin layers of gold and beryllium was irradiated with one laser beam o f the Nova laser facility and the resulting two ion species plasma was probed with a second laser beam at a distance of 500 mu m with time-r esolved spectroscopy of the Thomson scattered light. A controlled vari ation of the Au fraction of the plasma was achieved by changing the re lative thicknesses of the individual multilayers of the target. Two io n acoustic waves belonging to the Au and Be species were clearly obser ved. Besides their usual application to deduce electron temperatures, the relative damping of both waves provides an accurate measurement of the ion temperature of the plasma. In addition, the relative ion dens ities can be measured with high accuracy from the relative phase veloc ities of both waves if the ion charge state is known independently or vice versa. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.