Session CO2 - Laser Accelerators; Ultraintense Laser Applications.
ORAL session, Monday afternoon, November 15
Room 203, SCC
The physics of laser driven ion acceleration has gained new interest in recent years due to the remarkable properties of these ion beams at high laser intensities and laser pulse energies. While important aspects of laser-ion acceleration have been investigated in recent years many remain unclear. In the presentation the heating and expansion of foils irradiated with sub-ps high intensity lasers is investigated. Particular focus is on the evolution of the electron distribution function during expansion. It is addressed how collisional heating and expansion related cooling of the plasma compete against each other and which energy partition between the electron and ion fluids has to be expected for a given target geometry. It is also addressed which role ``sheath acceleration'' plays during the plasma expansion process. Comparison with recent experiments and analytical models is given.