Cover Picture: Contrib. Plasma Phys. 7/2013

A 250 µm thick high purity beryllium foil is symmetrically irradiated by a total of 20 laser beams at 351 nm wavelength. Each laser carries 480 J in a 1 ns long pulse, the pulses are staggered in time and focussed on a 800 µm diameter focal spot, yielding a flat top intensity profile of 2.4 × 10¹⁴ W/cm² for 3 ns on the target surface. The evolution of the mass density is modelled with the radiation‐hydrodynamics code HELIOS as function of the target depth. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)