Measurements of electron density profiles using an angular filter refractometer

A novel diagnostic technique, angular filter refractometry (AFR), has been developed to characterize high-density, long-scale-length plasmas relevant to high-energy-density physics experiments. AFR measures plasma densities up to 10(21) cm(-3) with a 263-nm probe laser and is used to study the plasma expansion from CH foil and spherical targets that are irradiated with similar to 9 kJ of ultraviolet (351-nm) laser energy in a 2-ns pulse. The data elucidate the temporal evolution of the plasma profile for the CH planar targets and the dependence of the plasma profile on target radius for CH spheres. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.