Measurement of the Hydrodynamic Efficiency of Laser Plasma at the “Kanal-2” Installation using Aluminum and Copper Targets

Abstract

The results of experimental measurements of the hydrodynamic efficiency of laser plasma for aluminum and copper targets are presented. The studies were performed on the “Kanal-2” laser setup system using the ballistic pendulum method. The pressure in the interaction chamber was 10−4 Torr, the pendulum length was 145 mm, the mass of the pendulum with a target was 7.2 g. At the half-height pulse duration of 2.5 ns, the power density on the target surface was ∼1013 W/cm2. In the case of aluminum target, the hydrodynamic efficiency coefficient increased from 1.5% to 4.5% with increasing laser pulse energy from 5 J to 10 J, whereas it remained at the level of 5% for the copper target.