Optimizing a liquid sheet target for studies in high repetition, high-power laser-matter interactions a liquid sheet target for studies in high repetition, high-power laser-matter interactions

Liquid sheet platforms offer a variety of research applications when used with high-repetition rate. high-power lasers. These include laser-driven ion acceleration mechanisms [1], materials research relevant to Inertial Fusion Energy systems with neutron sources [2], and plasma mirrors for laser contrast enhancement [3]. Previous platforms employed a replenishing liquid target with thicknesses ranging from a few microns to sub-micron by driving water through a converging channel made of etched glass [4] or etched Tungsten [2] pressed against a flat plate of the same material. We built the next generation of this platform with key performance improvements to make it suitable for extended use with high-repetition, high-power lasers. This work was submitted to the journal Review of Scientific Instrumentation and is currently under review. Here, we present results validating our platform for studies in laser-driven ion acceleration at two high-repetition rate petawatt-class laser facilities, ALEPH at Colorado State University and L3-HAPLS at ELI ERIC. Furthermore, we discuss our progress optimizing key features of the liquid sheets including their dimensions, optical flatness, and thickness to pursue future studies in high-repetition rate, high-power laser-matter interactions.



Funding Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science under FWP100182



References:

[1] F. Treffert and G. D. Glenn et al., Phys. Plasmas 29, 123105 (2022)

[2] F. Treffert et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 074104 (2022)

[3] C. I.D. Underwood et al, Laser and Particle Beams 38, 2 (2020)

[4] Koralek et al., Nat Commun 9, 1353 (2018)