Figure 1

(a) Experimental setup. (b)–(g) Typical proton imaging data at probing times $\sim -4$, 0, 3, 7, 13, and 25 ps, respectively, and (h) proton deflectometry data. The magnification was 30 in (b)–(d) and 15 in (e)–(h). The scales refer to the interaction target plane (scale on detector is $M$ times the scale given in the figure).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(a) Particle tracing of the initial transient field. (b) Particle tracing of the expanding front. The scales refer to the interaction target plane. (c) Comparison between the shift of the vertical mesh lines along the $x$ axis indicated in Fig. 1h as measured in the detector plane (scatter graph) and the proton deflections in the $x$ direction along the $x$ axis indicated in (b) as obtained from particle tracing simulations (line graphs). The deflections and line shifts are plotted vs the unperturbed proton position in the interaction plane. The solid line corresponds to the mean proton energy detected by the RCF layer in the experiment. The dashed lines correspond to the minimum and maximum proton energies detected by the RCF. (d) Same as in (c), but along the $y$ axes indicated in (b) and in Fig. 1h, respectively.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

Field profiles from PIC (solid line) and fluid (dashed line) simulations at three different times and for $T_{e0}=500\mathrm{keV}$ and $n_{e0}=3\times {10}^{19}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$.Reuse & Permissions