Short-Pulse Laser Slams Tiny Targets

摘要

Driving high-energy-density (HED) phenomena requires quickly coupling the energy contained in a laser pulse with the target material. An extremely short laser pulse is ideal. It couples a large fraction of the laser energy with the target nearly instantaneously, ionizing the entire target while it is still solid and before it has a chance to expand. This quick coupling of energy and matter, which does not substantially change the volume of the target, is called isochoric heating.