Isochoric heating of solid aluminium with picosecond X-ray pulses

Abstract

High-energy-density matter in quite unique parameter regimes can be studied using an intense laser pulse to heat isochorically an initially cold solid density target. Such isochoric heating experiments permit study of the properties, such as the equation of state, of heated matter. One of the principal challenges of these experiments is to heat sufficiently thick layers so that they will be inertially confined over times scales sufficient for equilibration, times that are often many picoseconds, even at these high densities. One approach to this problem is to heat a solid target not with the laser pulse directly, which deposits its energy only over a few nanometres, but to heat with penetrating X-rays. In this paper, we present preliminary results where such ultrafast X-ray heating is demonstrated using a short-pulse laser-driven silicon Kα source to heat a layer of solid density aluminium.