Development of a laser-produced plasma target for beam-plasma inter-action researches

A laser-produced plasma target system was developed for beam-plasma interaction experiments concerning heavy-ion inertial fusion. Irradiating a small particle of lithium hydride (LiH) with a pulsed laser, transformed the particle into a plasma. The isotropy of the plasma expansion was monitored by charge collectors. The electron density distribution was measured by interferometry. For particle sizes below and irradiation energies above certain critical values, we obtained a spherically symmetric Gaussian-like density distribution and a high degree of ionization. The expected density and size of the spherical plasma as a target for ion beams are roughly similar to 10(18) cm(-3) and similar to 1 mm, respectively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.