Time Resolved Analysis of the Expansion of Isochoricly Heated Thin Foils

Summary form only given. The purpose of this work is to characterize the process of plasma expansion of isochoricly heated thin foil targets that served as strongly coupled plasma targets in ion transport experiments. Thin foils of aluminum, diamond like carbon and paladium were heated using electrons driven by ultrahigh intensity laser irradiation (10 17-1019 W/cm2). The electrons heat up the target in a fraction of a ps. By measuring the subsequent expansion, data can be gathered to benchmark LASNEX hydro simulations that can give us an idea of the temporal density and temperature history oi' the sample. The experiment was done at the LULI 100 TW laser laboratory. Time resolved chirped shadowgraphy shows the expansion of the targets at sub relativistic velocities. The experimental setup and a comparison of experiment results with radiation hydrodynamic code simulations will be presented.