Micron-scale ambient-temperature liquid jets for high repetition rate laser-matter interactions*

To take full advantage of the growing set of PW-class lasers capable of operating at 1 Hz or greater, high repetition rate-compatible target technologies are necessary. We have developed a target for high-intensity laser interactions based on micron-scale sheet jets of ambient-temperature, low-surface-tension liquid developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.^1,2 These sheets are created at the convergence of two liquid flows and can be tuned in situ to have thicknesses ranging from less than one micron to several tens of microns. Here we describe an experimental platform using these jets³ and show that they withstand 0.5 Hz operation with laser intensities exceeding 10²¹ W/cm². We also illustrate the application of this platform to several topics in high-intensity laser-matter interactions, including laser-driven neutron production, streaming instabilities in laser-driven ion beams, and data-driven real-time optimization of laser-matter interactions.