Low electron temperature in ablating materials formed by picosecond soft X-ray laser pulses

Ishino, Masahiko; Hasegawa, Noboru; Nishikino, Masaharu; Pikuz, T.*; Skobelev, I. Y.*; Faenov, A.*; Inogamov, N.*; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Yamagiwa, Mitsuru

To study the ablation process induced by the soft X-ray laser pulse, we investigated the electron temperature of the ablating material. Focused soft X-ray laser pulses having a wavelength of 13.9 nm and duration of 7 ps were irradiated onto target surfaces, and we observed the optical emission from surfaces by use of an optical camera. On target surfaces, we could confirm damage structures, but no emission signal in the visible spectral range during ablation could be observed. Then, we estimated the electron temperature in the ablating matter, and we estimated the electron temperature to be lower than 1 eV and the process duration was shorter than 1000 ps. This result is in good accordance with the theoretical prediction. Our investigation implies that the spallative ablation occurs in the low electron temperature region of a non-equilibrium state of warm dense matter. We will present the current state of our eperimental results.