Powerful Lasers Reveal How Matter Becomes Plasma in Trillionths of a Second

HZDR researchers combined European XFEL with a high-intensity optical laser to watch copper turn into plasma in real time.

With picosecond resolution, they tracked Cu22+ ions forming almost instantly, peaking at about 2.5 picoseconds before recombination reduced them.

The study offers a new way to measure plasma dynamics under extreme conditions.

It could improve diagnostics for laser fusion and other high-energy-density physics experiments.