Generation and probing of warm dense matter (Al) created by laser-accelerated proton beams

Abstract

A study of isochoric heating of Al foil by laser-accelerated proton beam is presented. The proton source that induces the heating has been characterized in details. The heated sample conditions at different times during heating were inferred by coupling a time-and space- resolved interferometry diagnostic with a 1-dimensional hydrodynamic code (that includes proton stopping) that uses the previously characterized proton source as input. In this way, we have minimized the number of free parameters in the modeling of the heating. We have shown that heating was isochoric and almost uniform along the target thickness with a maximum temperature of ∼ 18 eV. Finally, a X-ray Near Edge Absorption Spectroscopy (XANES) diagnostic has been used to study the structural modification of the warm dense aluminum sample. We have observed a progressive loss, within ∼ 10 ps, of lattice ordering within solid density Al samples as the temperature rises from 300 K to > 104 K. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.