Accession Number:
AD1021274
Title:
Shack-Hartmann Electron Densitometer (SHED): An Optical System for Diagnosing Free Electron Density in Laser-Produced Plasmas
Descriptive Note:
Technical Report,03 Jan 2013,30 Apr 2014
Corporate Author:
ARMY RESEARCH LAB ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MD ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND United States
Personal Author(s):
Report Date:
2016-11-01
Pagination or Media Count:
26.0
Abstract:
The Shack-Hartmann Electron Densitometer is a novel method to diagnose ultrashort pulse laser produced plasmas by measuring the phase change to a probe laser beam. Free electrons in a plasma cause distortions to the phasefront of a probe laser that is measured through a lenslet array onto a camera. This method allows for superior performance in measuring minute variations in the electron density in 2 dimensions with sub picosecond time resolution. The data taken demonstrated the ability to diagnose plasmas with densities of the order of 1019 cm-3 and show the temporal evolution of the plasma long after the driving laser pulse has left. The method can be further improved by enclosing the probe beam and adding a second axis to allow for tomographic reconstruction of the electron density in 3 dimensions.
Descriptors:
Subject Categories:
- Plasma Physics and Magnetohydrodynamics
- Nuclear Physics and Elementary Particle Physics