Measuring fast electron spectra and laser absorption in relativistic laser-solid interactions using differential bremsstrahlung photon detectors

R H H Scott; E L Clark; F Pérez; M J V Streeter; J R Davies; H-P Schlenvoigt; J J Santos; S Hulin; K L Lancaster; S D Baton; S J Rose; P A Norreys

doi:10.1063/1.4816332

Measuring fast electron spectra and laser absorption in relativistic laser-solid interactions using differential bremsstrahlung photon detectors

Rev Sci Instrum. 2013 Aug;84(8):083505. doi: 10.1063/1.4816332.

Authors

R H H Scott¹, E L Clark, F Pérez, M J V Streeter, J R Davies, H-P Schlenvoigt, J J Santos, S Hulin, K L Lancaster, S D Baton, S J Rose, P A Norreys

Affiliation

¹ Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.

PMID: 24007063
DOI: 10.1063/1.4816332

Abstract

A photon detector suitable for the measurement of bremsstrahlung spectra generated in relativistically intense laser-solid interactions is described. The Monte Carlo techniques used to extract the fast electron spectrum and laser energy absorbed into forward-going fast electrons are detailed. A relativistically intense laser-solid experiment using frequency doubled laser light is used to demonstrate the effective operation of the detector. The experimental data were interpreted using the 3-spatial-dimension Monte Carlo code MCNPX [D. Pelowitz, MCNPX User's Manual Version 2.6.0, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2008], and the fast electron temperature found to be 125 keV.