EVALUATION OF A FOAM BUFFER TARGET DESIGN FOR SPATIALLY UNIFORM ABLATION OF LASER-IRRADIATED PLASMAS

Experimental observations are presented demonstrating that the use of a gold-coated foam layer on the surface of a laser-driven target subst antially reduces its hydrodynamic breakup during the acceleration phas e. The data suggest that this results from enhanced thermal smoothing during the early-time imprint stage of the interaction. The target's k inetic energy and the level of parametric instability growth are shown to remain essentially unchanged from that of a conventionally driven target.