1. |
- Vinko, S. M., et al.
(författare)
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Electronic Structure of an XUV Photogenerated Solid-Density Aluminum Plasma
- 2010
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 104:22, s. 225001-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By use of high intensity XUV radiation from the FLASH free-electron laser at DESY, we have created highly excited exotic states of matter in solid-density aluminum samples. The XUV intensity is sufficiently high to excite an inner-shell electron from a large fraction of the atoms in the focal region. We show that soft-x-ray emission spectroscopy measurements reveal the electronic temperature and density of this highly excited system immediately after the excitation pulse, with detailed calculations of the electronic structure, based on finite-temperature density functional theory, in good agreement with the experimental results.
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2. |
- Andreasson, Jakob, et al.
(författare)
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Saturated ablation in metal hydrides and acceleration of protons and deuterons to keV energies with a soft-x-ray laser
- 2011
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Ingår i: Physical Review E. Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics. - 1539-3755 .- 1550-2376. ; 83:1, s. 016403-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies of materials under extreme conditions have relevance to a broad area of research, including planetary physics, fusion research, materials science, and structural biology with x-ray lasers. We study such extreme conditions and experimentally probe the interaction between ultrashort soft x-ray pulses and solid targets (metals and their deuterides) at the FLASH free-electron laser where power densities exceeding 1017 W/cm2 were reached. Time-of-flight ion spectrometry and crater analysis were used to characterize the interaction. The results show the onset of saturation in the ablation process at power densities above 1016 W/cm2. This effect can be linked to a transiently induced x-ray transparency in the solid by the femtosecond x-ray pulse at high power densities. The measured kinetic energies of protons and deuterons ejected from the surface reach several keV and concur with predictions from plasma-expansion models. Simulations of the interactions were performed with a nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium code with radiation transfer. These calculations return critical depths similar to the observed crater depths and capture the transient surface transparency at higher power densities.
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3. |
- Iwan, Bianca S, et al.
(författare)
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TOF-OFF : A method for determining focal positions in tightly focused free-electron laser experiments by measurement of ejected ions
- 2011
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Ingår i: High Energy Density Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1574-1818. ; 7:4, s. 336-342
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pulse intensities greater than 1017 Watt/cm2 were reached at the FLASH soft X-ray laser in Hamburg, Germany, using an off-axis parabolic mirror to focus 15 fs pulses of 5–70 μJ energy at 13.5 nm wavelength to a micron-sized spot. We describe the interaction of such pulses with niobium and vanadium targets and their deuterides. The beam produced craters in the solid targets, and we measured the kinetic energy of ions ejected from these craters. Ions with several keV kinetic energy were observed from craters approaching 5 μm in depth when the sample was at best focus. We also observed the onset of saturation in both ion acceleration and ablation with pulse intensities exceeding 1016 W/cm2, when the highest detected ion energies and the crater depths tend to saturate with increasing intensity. A general difficulty in working with micron and sub-micron focusing optics is finding the exact focus of the beam inside a vacuum chamber. Here we propose a direct method to measure the focal position to a resolution better than the Rayleigh length. The method is based on the correlation between the energies of ejected ions and the physical dimensions of the craters. We find that the focus position can be quickly determined from the ion time-of-flight (TOF) data as the target is scanned through the expected focal region. The method does not require external access to the sample or venting the vacuum chamber. Profile fitting employed to analyze the TOF data can extend resolution beyond the actual scanning step size.
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