Energy Penetration into Arrays of Aligned Nanowires Irradiated with Relativistic Intensities: Scaling to Terabar Pressures

C BARGSTEN; R. HOLLINGER; M. G. CAPELUTO; V. KAYMAK; A. PUKHOV; S. WANG; A. ROCKWOOD; Y. WANG; D. KEISS; R. TOMMASINI; R. LONDON; J. PARK; M. BUSQUET; M. KLAPISCH; V. N. SHLYAPTSEV; J. J. ROCCA

Science Advances

AAAS American Asociation for the Advancement of Science

Año: 2017 vol. 3

2375-2548

Ultrahigh-energy -density (UHED) matter, characterized by energy densities >1 x× 108 J cm−3and pressures greater than a gigabar, is encountered in the center of stars and in inertial confinementfusion capsules driven by the world?s largest lasers. Similar conditions can be obtained with compact,ultra-highultrahigh contrast, femtosecond lasers focused to relativistic intensities onto targets composed ofaligned nanowire arrays. Here weWe report the measurement of the key physical process in determiningthe energy density deposited in high-aspect-ratio nanowire array plasmas: the energy penetration. Bymonitoring the x-ray emission from buried Co tracer segments in Ni nanowire arrays irradiated at anintensity of 4 x× 1019 W cm−2, we demonstrate energy penetration depths of several μmmicrometers,leading to UHED plasmas of that size. Relativistic 3Dthree-dimensional particle-in-cell -simulations,validated by these measurements, predict that irradiation of nanostructures at intensities of >1 x× 1022 Wcm−2 will lead to a virtually unexplored extreme UHED plasma regime characterized by energy densitiesin excess of 8 x× 1010 J cm−3, equivalent to a pressure of 0.35 Tbar.