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Novel features of plasma generation by 1 ps, 1, 10^19Wcm^-2 laser pulses on thick plastic targets are presented: (i) The electron distribution in the ablated plasma has a minimum along the target normal which persists long after the laser pulse (>1ns) ; (ii) a narrow plasma jet is formed at the rear surface after a few picoseconds, in line with the laser focus. This is consistent with a beam of fast electrons traveling through the target, collimated by a magnetic field in the target.
Tatarakis et al. (1998) studied this question.