Publications

This page contains abstracts of published papers for which I have been a contributor.

Planar radiative shock experiments and their comparison to simulations

A. B. Reighard, R. P. Drake, J. E. Mucino, J. P. Knauer, and M. Busquet

Physics of Plasmas, Volume 14, Issue 5, pp. 056504-056504-7 (2007)

Recent experiments have obtained radiographic data from shock waves driven at >100 km/s in xenon gas, and Thomson scattering data from similar experiments using argon gas. Presented here is a review of these experiments, followed by an outline of the discrepancies between the data and the results of one-dimensional simulations. Simulations using procedures that work well for similar but nonradiative experiments show inconsistencies between the measured position of the interface of the beryllium and xenon and the calculated position for these experiments. Sources of the discrepancy are explored.

Proton acceleration from ultrahigh-intensity short-pulse laser-matter interactions with Cu micro-cone targets at an intrinsic ~10⁻⁸ contrast

S. A. Gaillard, K. A. Flippo, M. E. Lowenstern, J. E. Mucino, J. M. Rassuchine, D. C. Gautier, J. Workman, and T. E. Cowan

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 244, Issue 2, pp. 022034 (2010)

In this paper, we report on experiments comparing various geometries of conical Cu targets to Cu flat foils, which were performed on the 200 TW Trident laser (~80 J, 600 fs, ~7 μm spot size, S-polarization and ~1.5×10²⁰ W/cm²) at an intrinsic (to the system's regenerative amplifier) ASE contrast of 10^‑8. The current work builds on previous results obtained on Trident (~20 J, ~14 μm spot size, P-polarization, ~10¹⁹ W/cm², also at the intrinsic contrast of 10^‑8) demonstrating enhanced proton energies and laser-proton conversion efficiencies (η) using Flat Top Cone (FTC) targets [1]. An electron spectrometer and a Cu Kα imaging diagnostic were added to respectively assess the electron population, and determine the characteristics of laser absorption in FTCs. Results indicate a linear correlation between electron temperatures and proton energies, as well as laser absorption taking place in a preplasma filling the cone, preventing the previously observed enhancement in proton energies.

Overcritical to Underdense Plasma in Under 1 µm: 150 TW Laser–Thin-Target Interactions for Particle Acceleration

K. A. Flippo, S. A. Gaillard, J. S. Cowan, D. C. Gautier, J. E. Mucino, M. E. Lowenstern

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Volume 39, Issue 11, pp 2428-2429 (2011)

When a high-intensity laser interacts with a solid target, a well-known phenomenon, namely, the production of multimegaelectronvolt particles, occurs. However, if the laser and target thickness are carefully chosen to coincide with the burn-through of the laser's amplified-spontaneous-emission pre-pulse, the main pulse of the laser can interact with a short-scale-length near-critical-density plasma, and a very low divergent electron beam can be produced.