Recent Results from Laser Solid Interaction Experiments using 100 TW Sandia Laser

Summary form only given. We present results from experiments performed on 100 TW facility at Sandia National Laboratory. The main goals of the experiment were to quantify the pointing stability, Kalpha spot size and pre-pulse effects of the Z-PW laser. The targets were 25 mum thick Cu foils. The specific diagnostics used include a Cu Kalpha spherical crystal imager which provided information on the shot to shot variations in Kalpha spot intensity and position, an optical probe used for transverse shadowgraphy of pre-pulse plasma formation and radiochromic film RCF stacks to characterize the rear surface proton energy. The Copper Kalpha images show an average spot diameter of ~71plusmn11 mum and a pointing error of les50 mum in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The stacks of RCF showed an average peak proton energy of 7.7plusmn2.4 MeV.