Development of a two-dimensional space-resolved high speed sampling camera

We developed a two-dimensional spatial resolved high-speed UV sampling camera (HISAC) to study energy transport in laser-produced plasmas. The HISAC is composed of an optical bundle of fibers coupled to a streak camera to obtain a two-dimensional spatial resolution with a temporal resolution of less than a few 10 ps. This HISAC system was demonstrated in the experiments on inferred uniformity measurements of laser-ablation pressures as well as on energy transport in ultraintense laser-plasma interactions. Two-dimensional shock heating was temporally resolved in a hemispherical target, resulting in the distribution of the ablation pressure as a function of laser incidence angle. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)62501-1].