Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Ion acceleration by compact laser-plasma sources promises a variety of applications ranging from medical relevance to fusion experiments.Reaching the required beam quality parameters for those applications demands a very high level of understanding and control over the laserplasma interaction process. Central components in this context are the absorption of the electromagnetic laser field by the plasma and the quality of the resulting acceleration field structure.
Measuring and analyzing unabsorbed light - as transmitted and/or specularly reflected parts - thus allows insight into properties of the underlying laser-plasma interaction. We experimentally investigate these interactions for high and low-contrast laser pulses with thin solid density foil targets at the Draco PW laser system (HZDR). The results of spectral, spatial, and energy analysis of transmitted and reflected light indicate changes in the plasma interaction and will be presented.