Transient changes in electric fields induced by interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with insulator and metal foils: Sustainable fields spanning several millimeters

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Apr;91(4):043101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.91.043101. Epub 2015 Apr 1.

Abstract

The temporal evolutions of electromagnetic fields generated by the interaction between ultraintense lasers (1.3×10(18) and 8.2×10(18)W/cm(2)) and solid targets at a distance of several millimeters from the laser-irradiated region have been investigated by electron deflectometry. For three types of foil targets (insulating foil, conductive foil, and insulating foil onto which a metal disk was deposited), transient changes in the fields were observed. We found that the direction, strength, and temporal evolution of the generated fields differ markedly for these three types of targets. The results provide an insight for studying the emission dynamics of laser-accelerated fast electrons.