Confinement of laser-produced plasma by a strong external magnetic field

First results of a novel experiment with magnetically confined laser-plasma are presented. The laser plasma is created by irradiating solid target with a focused Nd-glass laser. The target was placed on the axis of the two, single-turn magnetic coils which provided a magnetic field up to 500 kGs in the target region. The expanding laser plasma is confined by the magnetic field and an elongated plasma column is formed along the axis. The plasma column emits strong soft X-radiation. The pinhole photographs show that the plasma column is at least 5 mm long. To study the interaction of the expanding laser plasma with a magnetic field the laser interferometry was used. (author) 4 figs