Foil acceleration of double layer target by intense, pulsed, ion-beam ablation

High density ablation plasma produced by intense, pulsed, ion beam has been used to accelerate a thin foil target. Pulsed proton beam with energy density of 120 J/cm/sup 2/, which was obtained by a magnetically insulated diode, was irradiated on a double-layer aluminum target coated by a thin film of gold. The foil velocity was measured by a time-of-flight method. The maximum foil velocity of 2.1 km/s was obtained. The acceleration pressure estimated by the target velocity was found to be 0.44 GPa. The target velocity was increased with increasing the thickness of gold. Using a simple MHD model, we considered the behavior of the foil accelerated. From the comparison of the experimental data with that simulated, a considerable agreement was obtained between them. With the velocity data, we obtained the energy transfer efficiency of the flyer to be 17.5%.