PLASMA CONDITIONS GENERATED BY INTERACTION OF A HIGH BRIGHTNESS, PREPULSE FREE, RAMAN AMPLIFIED KRF LASER-PULSE WITH SOLID TARGETS

A high brightness, Raman amplified KrF laser has been used to irradiate solid targets with 12 ps laser pulses at intensities above 10(15) W/cm2 without the presence of a preformed plasma caused by low level amplified spontaneous emission prepulse. Time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy of the K-shell emission from aluminum was used to infer electron densities in excess of 10(23) cm-3 at temperatures of several hundred electronvolts.