Studies on laser driven shocks in Aluminum and Gold targets at >10 Mbar pressure

Abstract

study of Equation of State (EOS) at high pressures is of interest for several fields of Physics, in particular astrophysics, material science and inertial confinement fusion. The Laser driven shock studies on various targets have been done with the 10 J/ 500 ps laser system. The focused intensity at the target was 1013 to 1014 W/cm2. The shock velocity was measured by using an optical streak camera. We have used various thicknesses of Al foil and 10 μm gold foil targets. Scaling of target velocity, with laser intensity has been done. The scaling of shock transit time with the foil thickness has been done. It is observed that at laser intensity > 1 × 1014 W/cm2 the shock pressure measured from various target material are more than 10 Mbar. The scaling of shock transit time with target thickness has been measure. Also the scaling of shock velocity with laser intensity has been done for Aluminium and gold targets. The experimental observations are seen to match well with the simulations. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.