Decay of electron conduction zone length by preheating in laser-produced plasma

An analytical model was built, considering preheating effect to solve the steady state flow in electron conduction zone of gold plasma. The results show that with low density gold plasma, there is great preheating to the shock wave zone by electron thermal flux from the electron conduction zone, because of the large electron mean free path. The electron conduction zone length decays when the gold density decreases, and almost vanishes with the gold density below 1 g/cm³. Experiments with gold and gold foam targets were performed on high energy laser facility. Additionally, relative numerical simulations were calculated with hydrodynamics code. The experimental, numerical and analytical data are in good agreement.