Journal Article

PUBDB-2025-04696

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Demonstration of full-scale spatiotemporal diagnostics of solid-density plasmas driven by an ultra-short relativistic laser pulse using an X-ray free-electron laser

Huang, L. ; Šmíd, M. ; Yang, L. ; Humphries, O. ; Hagemann, J.DESY* ; Engler, T. ; Pan, X. ; Cui, Y. ; Kluge, T. ; Aguilar, R. ; Baehtz, C. ; Brambrink, E. ; Eren, E. ; Falk, K.Extern*XFEL.EU* ; Laso Garcia, A. ; Göde, S. ; Gutt, C. ; Hassan, M. ; Heuser, P. ; Höppner, H. ; Kozlova, M. ; Lu, W. ; Metzkes-Ng, J. ; Masruri, M. ; Mishchenko, M. ; Nakatsutsumi, M. ; Ota, M. ; Öztürk, Ö. ; Pelka, A. ; Prencipe, I. ; Preston, T. R. ; Randolph, L. ; Rehwald, M. ; Schlenvoigt, H.-P. ; Schramm, U. ; Schwinkendorf, J.-P. ; Starke, S. ; Štefaníková, R. ; Thiessenhusen, E. ; Toncian, M. ; Toncian, T. ; Vorberger, J. ; Zastrau, U. ; Zeil, K. ; Cowan, T. E.

2026
AIP Publishing Melville, NY

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1063/5.0279974

Abstract: Understanding the complex plasma dynamics in ultra-intense relativistic laser–solid interactions is of fundamental importance for applications of laser–plasma-based particle accelerators, the creation of high-energy-density matter, understanding planetary science, and laser-driven fusion energy. However, experimental efforts in this regime have been limited by the lack of accessibility of over-critical densities and the poor spatiotemporal resolution of conventional diagnostics. Over the last decade, the advent of femtosecond brilliant hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has opened new horizons to overcome these limitations. Here, for the first time, we present full-scale spatiotemporal measurements of solid-density plasma dynamics, including preplasma generation with tens of nanometer scale length driven by the leading edge of a relativistic laser pulse, ultrafast heating and ionization at the main pulse arrival, the laser-driven blast wave, and transient surface return current-induced compression dynamics up to hundreds of picoseconds after interaction. These observations are enabled by utilizing a novel combination of advanced X-ray diagnostics including small-angle X-ray scattering, resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy, and propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging simultaneously at the European XFEL-HED beamline station.

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Research Program(s):

1. HIDSS-0002 - DASHH: Data Science in Hamburg - Helmholtz Graduate School for the Structure of Matter (2019_IVF-HIDSS-0002) (2019_IVF-HIDSS-0002)

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Database coverage:
; ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences ; DOAJ Seal ; Essential Science Indicators ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection

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