Plasma experiments with iodine laser system PERUN

The iodine photodissociation laser system PERUN was used for the generation of laser plasma. Three types of aluminium targets were employed. The laser pulse duration was 300 to 600 ps and contrast was better than 106. The power density at the target was to exceed 1013/cm2, a value sufficient for the formation of hot laser plasma. The most important property of hot laser plasma is its ability to emit soft X-rays over the 0.1-10 nm range. The interaction chamber was therefore fitted with X-ray diagnostic equipment. Two crystal spectrometers were employed for spectral analysis of the emerging X-rays (particularly in the region of the line spectrum), and a pair of Be foils, acting as filters and also equipped with a pair of Si PIN diodes for recording, served to measure the temperature in the continuous spectral region. The time behavior of the emission could be examined in the visible region only, using a Hamamatsu streak camera. The observed plasma temperature was (0.4-1.6)x1020 cm-3, in dependence on the incident energy. (Z.S.). 3 refs