Hollow ballistic pendulum for plasma momentum measurements

A novel pendulum design—hollow ballistic pendulum—is suggested for plasma momentum measurements. It has an advantage over the pendula used earlier in laser plasma experiments of being insensitive to a momentum of matter evaporated and scattered by the pendulum wall exposed to the plasma, which usually exceeds plasma momentum to be measured. Simple expressions describing pendulum performance are derived, and requirements of shape and size are established. Using this kind of pendulum in experiments on laser acceleration of thin foils made it possible to measure the momentum of accelerated foil with an accuracy of about 10%.