Time and space resolved interferometry for detecting plasma expansion from solid targets

We have used time and space resolved interferometry to measure the dynamics of a plasma expanding off the surface of a solid target. This allows accessing 1) the time- and space-resolved dynamics of the fast electrons (laser-accelerated from solids and expanding into vacuum from the rear target surface), and of the energy partition into bulk (cold) electrons and 2) the expansion velocity of an isochorically heated target, from which information about the heating process can be retrieved.