Properties of CO2 laser produced long-life plasmas observed by x-ray spectroscopic methods

We present the properties of shell confinement long-life plasmas produced by a CO2 laser. The temperature measurement for parylene shell targets based on the x-ray spectroscopic method gives the electron temperature of more than 500 eV at the center of a 1-mm-diam target. An enchanced confinement time is obtained in a thick gold shell (100 μm thick) target coated internally with parylene. The duration of the x ray emitted from the hot core in a 3-mm-diam target of this type is 34 ns, while the laser pulse duration is 1 ns. The long duration of the x-ray manifests the hot core plasma lifetime; the observed duration presents a strong evidence of thermal insulation by the self-generated magnetic field