Radiative cooling of an Al plasma in an AlTi mixture heated by an ultraintense laser pulse

International audienceThe rapid heating and cooling dynamics of thin solid foils driven by an ultraintense (∼ 10 18 Wcm −2) picosecond laser pulse has been experimentally studied through time-integrated and time-resolved x-ray emission spectroscopy as well as 2D x-ray imaging. Targets consisted of plastic foils with buried Al or Al 42 Ti 58 layers, with Al as a tracer to infer the plasma conditions. Our measurements indicate that the Al K-shell emission occurs over a shorter duration and from a narrower region in AlTi mixtures compared to pure Al samples. The experimental data are consistent with a simple model describing the fast heating and expansion of the foil target, and pinpoint the importance of radiative cooling in high-Z samples