Non-equilibrium plasmas generated by pulsed laser intensities between 1010 and 1016 W cm−2 can be produced in high vacuum conditions. Thick and thin irradiated targets show non-isotropic radiation emission of photons, electrons and ions. High energetic ions, emitted along the normal to the target surface, are driven by high electric fields developed in plasma charge separation. Plasmas are characterized in terms of equivalent temperature, density, particle energy distributions and angular distribution, ion charge state distributions and the ion acceleration driving field.Plasma diagnostic methods are based mainly on time-of-flight techniques using ion collectors, SiC semiconductor detectors and ion energy analysers. Thomson parabola spectrometry, track detection and mass spectrometry give further characterizations.Investigations demonstrated that plasma properties depend strongly on the laser's characteristics, target composition and irradiation conditions. Results relative to ion and proton acceleration appear very interesting for many applications in the field of nuclear physics, matter structure, microelectronics, biology and medicine.
Effect of light gas atom inclusions on the characteristics of laser-produced plasma ions