Measurements of mass ablation rate of laser-irradiated target by the face-on x-ray backlighting technique

Abstract

We report a novel method to measure the value of mass ablation rate per unit surface (ṁ) in laser-irradiated targets. The face-on x-ray backlighting technique was utilized for the measurement. Flat polystyrene foils were irradiated by the partially coherent light at the intensity of 0.7 or 1.4×1014 W/cm2. We observed the residual areal mass of the planar targets to deduce temporally resolved mass ablation rate. Observed mass ablation rates are well reproduced both by the steady-state ablation model and by one-dimensional simulation.