Filamentation and jet formation in line-focused laser-plasma interactions

The authors successfully completed a set of experiments on laser irradiation of planar cylindrical targets to explore the interaction of laser with plasmas under the geometrical configuration of a line focus. They observed the line-focused laser beam break up into filaments as well as plasma jetlike structures. These phenomena might become obstacles in achieving optimum x-ray lasing using line-focused laser-produced plasma as a gain medium. The authors' experiments were carried out at the 6-Beam Glass Laser Facility of SIOM using either one beam or two beams combined into one. The line focus had a length of 3-4 mm and a width of 60-140 μm. The 1064-nm light had a FWHM of 200-400 ps. The average laser intensity on-target was in the 1012-5 X 1013-Wcm2 range. Planar targets and segmented planar targets consisting of different materials as well as cylindrical targets were used