Measurements of thermal transport in plasmas produced by picosecond laser pulses

In this paper we present measurements of energy transport in hot, high-density plasmas produced by picosecond laser interaction with solid targets. The propagation of the ablative heat wave was studied by using X-ray-ultraviolet (XUV) spectroscopy with picosecond temporal resolution. Measurements show that for laser intensities on target above 10(16) W/cm(2), strong inhibition of heat flux toward the cold target occurs. A detailed modelling of the experimental data is presented in which heat transport and absorption processes are taken into account self-consistently. Finally the role played by lateral transport and self-induced magnetic fields in our experiment is also discussed.