Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2001
Experiments were performed using high-power laser pulses (greater than 50 TW) focused into underdense helium, neon, or deuterium plasmas (ne ≤ 5 × 1019 cm−3). Ions having energies greater than 300 keV were measured to be produced primarily at 90° to the axis of laser propagation. Ion energies greater than 6 MeV were recorded from interactions with neon. Spatially resolved pinhole images of the ion emission were also obtained and were used to estimate the intensity of the focused radiation in the interaction region.