Thomson parabola spectrometry of laser generated plasma at PALS laboratory

Abstract

Laser generated Plasma has been obtained at PALS laboratory in Prague irradiating thin films by Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) regime. The irradiated targets were polymers and metals with embedded nanostructures and different thicknesses. In the present work, plasma has been characterized by using Thomson Parabola Spectrometer placed in forward direction. The regime of laser intensity was of the order of 1016W/cm2 at 1.3 μm wavelength. Simulations performed by TOSCA code have been employed to compare theoretical prevision with experimental data. This approach permitted the recognition of parabolas and the evaluations of ion charge, energy and mass-to-charge ratio. Results revealed that the maximum ion acceleration is obtained n metallic foils for optimal thickness of the order of 10 μm and for target containing nanostructures responsible for the increase of the plasma electron density and resonant absorption effect, as will be presented and discussed.