Speaker
Description
High power laser interactions with solids are associated with the generation of large amounts of intense broadband (up to several GHz) electromagnetic pulses (EMP) driven by the ejection of hot electrons from the target. The transient electromagnetic fields can reach up to several hundreds of kV m-1, which is a major concern for facilities as it causes significant equipment failures for facility systems and experimental diagnostics. We present results from an experimental study which investigated the correlation between the sheath field which drives ion acceleration and EMP, from picosecond laser-target interactions. The measurements show that EMP scales with laser energy whilst also being sensitive to other laser and target parameters. We observed a correlation between EMP energy and the maximum proton energy and the number of protons which indicates a relationship between the driver of the EMP and the electrostatic sheath field.
