Evolution of the electric fields induced in high intensity laser–matter interactions

Multi MeV protons and heavier ions are emitted by thin foils irradiated by high-intensity lasers, due to the huge accelerating fields, up to several teraelectronvolt per meter, at sub-picosecond timescale. The evolution of these huge fields is not well understood till today. Here we report, for the first time, direct and temporally resolved measurements of the electric fields produced by the interaction of a short-pulse high-intensity laser with solid targets. The results, obtained with a sub-100 fs temporal diagnostics, show that such fields build-up in few hundreds of femtoseconds and lasts after several picoseconds.