Environmental conditions in near-wall plasmas generated by impact of energetic particle fluxes

Directional flows of energetic ions produced by laser-exploded foils were used to investigate transient phenomena accompanying the plasma interaction with surfaces of solid targets (walls). In experiments carried out on the iodine laser system PALS, the formation of energetic plasma jets from burn-through foils of Al and Ta was optimized using the three-frame interferometry and applied to a design of alternate experimental configurations. The interaction of the directional plasma flows with secondary targets was studied via X-ray imaging, optical and high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. The environmental conditions in near-wall plasmas created at surfaces of plasma-exposed solids, in particular the velocity distribution of impinging and back-scattered ions, were determined via analysis of the observed spatially-resolved spectra of Al Lyα and Heα groups. The validity of the ion velocity gradients derived from the Doppler effect induced shifts and splitting of the spectral lines was supported by theoretical modeling based on a combination of hydrodynamic, atomic and collisional-radiative codes.