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Abstract
Present generation of ultra high power lasers have the ability to produce, in a controlled way, plasmas at solid density by compressing and heating the matter isochorically while maintaining it at a high temperature of a few keVs (several million degrees). Matter (plasma) in these extreme states is particularly interesting for high energy density physics such as laboratory studies of planetary and stellar astrophysics, laser fusion research, pulsed neutron source etc. To date however, keV solid density plasma has not yet been achieved in sufficiently uniform volume and for long enough times (picoseconds) due to the lack of global picture of the heating processes. We have studied the physics of isochoric heating of thin foil target by ultra-intense laser short pulse irradiation using collisional Particle-in-Cell simulations. These simulations include the complete physics of the laser isochoric heating, except ionization processes. In particular, these simulations account for hot electron generation, fast ion acceleration, energy transport in the target, and collisional energy coupling to the target. We investigate the optimal parameters for the laser isochoric heating, which helps in designing the experiments to achieve keV solid plasmas in laboratories.
