Optical interferometry and data analysis of laser-produced plasmas

We present our experimental investigations of the temporal evolution of plasmas produced by high power laser irradiation of various types of target materials. We obtained and analysed “high-quality” time-resolved streak-camera interferometric data on the evolution of the plasma electronic profile, which can directly be compared to analytical models and numerical simulations. For aluminium targets, the agreement with 1D simulations performed with the hydrocode MULTI is excellent, at least for large times (t ≥ 400 ps).