Electron emission from laser irradiating target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA)

ABSTRACTA study of the electron emission from laser-generated plasma in target normal sheath acceleration regime is presented for different targets. The used laser has an intensity of about 1016 W/cm2 and a pulse duration of 300 ps. Electrons were detected using SiC detectors and plastic scintillators employed in time-of-flight configuration and a Thomson parabola spectrometer (TPS). Measurements indicated the presence of hot electrons with a kinetic energy of the order of some MeVs. SiC and scintillators detect electrons up to about 400 keV while TPS electrons up to about 5 MeV energy. Electrons yield emitted in the forward direction is proportional to the effective atomic number of the target and is inversely proportional to the target thickness.