A SIMPLE MODEL FOR ELECTRON TEMPERATURE AND PENETRATION DEPTH IN INTERACTION OF ULTRA-SHORT LASER PULSES WITH SOLID TARGETS

摘要

A simple model of plasma heating and electron thermal conduction is proposed to estimate the temporal development of the electron temperature of the plasma during interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with solid targets. Our calculations show that the peak temperature is 894 eV and the penetration depth is about 70 nm for an Al target irradiated by an intense (I approximate to 10(16) W cm(-2)) laser pulse (150 fs) for a flux limiter (f) over bar = 0.1. The calculation indicates that the electron thermal conduction does play a major role and that the effect of the energy loss from electron-ion collisions is much less than that of the electron thermal conduction. Our modelling neglecting hydrodynamic expansion agrees well with experiments and with models that include expansion. [References: 23]