Laser material interactions in tamped materials on picosecond time scales in aluminum

A 100 ps laser is used to probe the pressure generation, depth of the non-solid ablator, and the non-linear optical effects through tamper materials. Samples consisted of an aluminum ablator with tampers of sapphire and coverslip glass. In general, the sapphire tamped sample achieves higher pressures at lower laser intensities as compared to the coverslip glass tamped sample. Attempts to model the details of this set of experimental data with standard available radiation coupled hydrodynamic codes make clear that more physics is needed in these simulations to accurately predict the impact of the tamper material on the pressure generation and the depth of non-solid aluminum.

Automated summary

In this study, a 100 ps laser was used to investigate the characteristics of the non-solid ablator and the impact of tamper materials on pressure generation and depth. The experiments showed that the sapphire tamper material achieved higher pressures at lower laser intensities compared to the coverslip glass tamper material. However, the current simulation methods require further physics to accurately predict the effects of tamper materials on pressure generation and depth.