Laser-driven kA sub-100 ps current pulse generation and transport

We report the generation and transport of laser-driven discharge currents in the sub-100 ps, kiloampere regime. A target and transport architecture was developed to mitigate dispersion, distortion, reflections, and the risk of electrical breakdown, enabling efficient extraction and guided propagation of the laser-induced discharge current. Experiments performed with a petawatt-class laser demonstrate measured peak currents up to 1.6 kA into 50 Ω (∼80 kV) with a measured pulse duration of 70 ps, limited by the 6 GHz diagnostic bandwidth. Bandwidth-corrected extrapolation suggests intrinsic pulses of a few tens of picoseconds with multi-kiloampere amplitudes, requiring confirmation by higher-bandwidth measurements. These results establish laser-driven targets as a viable source of ultrafast, high-amplitude electrical pulses and open new opportunities for applications in pulsed power and strong-field science.