Demonstration of full-scale spatiotemporal diagnostics of solid-density plasmas driven by an ultra-short relativistic laser pulse using an X-ray free-electron laser

Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser–solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser–plasma-based particle accelerators, the creation of high-energy-density matter, understanding planetary science, and laser-driven fusion energy. However, experimental efforts in this regime have been limited by the lack of accessibility of over-critical densities and the poor spatiotemporal resolution of conventional diagnostics. Over the last decade, the advent of femtosecond brilliant hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has opened new horizons to overcome these limitations. Here, for the first time, we present full-scale spatiotemporal measurements of solid-density plasma dynamics, including preplasma generation with tens of nanometer scale length driven by the leading edge of a relativistic laser pulse, ultrafast heating and ionization at the main pulse arrival, the laser-driven blast wave, and transient surface return current-induced compression dynamics up to hundreds of picoseconds after interaction. These observations are enabled by utilizing a novel combination of advanced X-ray diagnostics including small-angle X-ray scattering, resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy, and propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging simultaneously at the European XFEL-HED beamline station.

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Publication Details

Journal
Matter and Radiation at Extremes
Published
2025-10-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0279974
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.87
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article

Demonstration of full-scale spatiotemporal diagnostics of solid-density plasmas driven by an ultra-short relativistic laser pulse using an X-ray free-electron laser

U. Schramm, Ritz Ann Aguilar, Jan‐Patrick Schwinkendorf, J. Hagemann et al.
1 citations
Matter and Radiation at Extremes
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
1.87
article

Demonstration of full-scale spatiotemporal diagnostics of solid-density plasmas driven by an ultra-short relativistic laser pulse using an X-ray free-electron laser

U. Schramm, Ritz Ann Aguilar, Jan‐Patrick Schwinkendorf, J. Hagemann, Thea Engler, Karl Zeil, Lingen Huang, T. Kluge, Mikhail Mishchenko, Jan Vorberger, Sebastian Starke, Xiayun Pan, T. Toncian, Alejandro Laso García, Hauke Höppner, K. Falk, M. Nakatsutsumi, Masato Ota, Michal Šmíd, Thomas R. Preston, Wei Lu, Josefine Metzkes-Ng, Philipp Heuser, Lisa Randolph, Yun-Qian Cui, M. Kozlová, Carsten Baehtz, Oliver Humphries, Erik Thiessenhusen, T. E. Cowan, Özgul Öztürk, Irene Prencipe, E. Brambrink, Engin Eren, U. Zastrau, Christian Gutt, M. Toncian, Radka Štefaníková, A. Pełka, Martin Rehwald, Hans-Peter Schlenvoigt, M. Masruri, Long Yang, Sebastian Göde, Mohamed Hassan
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser–solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser–plasma-based particle accelerators, the creation of high-energy-density matter, understanding planetary science, and laser-driven fusion energy. However, experimental efforts in this regime have been limited by the lack of accessibility of over-critical densities and the poor spatiotemporal resolution of conventional diagnostics. Over the last decade, the advent of femtosecond brilliant hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has opened new horizons to overcome these limitations. Here, for the first time, we present full-scale spatiotemporal measurements of solid-density plasma dynamics, including preplasma generation with tens of nanometer scale length driven by the leading edge of a relativistic laser pulse, ultrafast heating and ionization at the main pulse arrival, the laser-driven blast wave, and transient surface return current-induced compression dynamics up to hundreds of picoseconds after interaction. These observations are enabled by utilizing a novel combination of advanced X-ray diagnostics including small-angle X-ray scattering, resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy, and propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging simultaneously at the European XFEL-HED beamline station.

Matter and Radiation at ExtremesVol. 11(1)
University of Siegen (DE), Folkwang University of the Arts (DE), Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE), Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines (CZ), National Institute for Fusion Science (JP), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 11%
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
1.87
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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