Thermal evolution of solid targets irradiated by pulsed plasma beams

Thermal evolution of various targets irradiated with high intensity pulsed ion or plasma beams was determined by computer simulation i.e. by solving numerically one dimensional heat flow equation. The calculations were carried out using the adopted ETLIT computer code (Energy Transport in Laser Irradiated Targets) based on Finite Element Method. The surface temperature, melt depth and liquid duration were computed as a function of pulse energy density, pulse duration, melting temperature and thermal diffusivity of a given material. In particular, some examples are shown for such materials as: Cu, Al, Zn, Fe, Ti, Mo, W, and Al2O3. Various practical aspects of the obtained results are discussed, with a special attention given to less or no intuitively predictable dependencies.