Impact of pre-plasma tailoring on K-ɑ emission and proton acceleration

Laser-produced plasmas are widely studied complex systems. In order to get better understanding of their inner processes, advanced diagnostics methods have to be used to get a valuable insight – for example, x-ray emission spectroscopy has the capability to unfold atomic processes and plasma conditions and reveal information about the hot electron population.
Recently, two x-ray crystal spectrometers were installed in the Ion Acceleration Lab at Draco PW laser facility, which allows to acquire characteristic emission spectra including Ti K-α and He-α lines from Ti targets. While quartz spectrometer offers wide spectral range and excellent spectral resolution of ∼ 0.3 eV, Ge spectrometer focuses on Ti K-α emission lines and provides 1D spatial imaging with resolution below 10 μm.
Here, we present the first results from the x-ray spectroscopic measurements from proton acceleration targets at the DRACO PW laser facility uncovering the plasma conditions and electron dynamics for various target and laser configurations including inclusion artificial pre-pulse or the use of reduced mass targets.