Impulsive excitation of a solid by extreme contrast, high intensity femtosecond laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ultra-fast interaction of high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses with solids, revealing extreme pressures and inward shocks through experimental and simulation methods.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the ultra-fast dynamics and shock formation in solids induced by extreme contrast femtosecond laser pulses.

Findings

Detection of extreme pressure in solid density regions.

Observation of a long-lived inward shock (~15 ps).

Hydrodynamic simulations match experimental results.

Abstract

We present the ultra-fast dynamics of the interaction between a high-intensity extreme contrast (expected to be around 1e-18 at hundreds of picoseconds timescale) femtosecond laser and a solid. Simultaneous measurements of probe Doppler spectrometry and reflectivity in pump-probe experiments reveal the presence of extreme pressure in the solid density region, which triggers a long-lived (about 15 ps) strong inward shock. Hydrodynamic simulations accurately replicate these observations, providing a detailed explanation of the underlying physics