Calorimetric study of laser-irradiated thin foil targets

Abstract

Hydrodynmaic efficiency of laser-irradiated thin aluminum and gold-coated aluminum targets was experimentally determined using a specially designed cone calorimeter. Velocity of the accelerated target and ablation pressure were also estimated from the experimental data. The laser irradiance range used in the experiments was between 1012 and 1013 watts/cm2. Experiments indicate that the fall in the hydrodynamic efficiency due to gold coating on aluminum target is about 12% at an irradiance of 8 × 1012 W/cm2.