Laser-Plasma Interactions at 0.53 μm for Disk Targets of Varying<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Z</mml:mi></mml:math>

Disk targets of Be, CH, Ti, and Au have been irradiated with 0.53-\ensuremath{\mu}m laser light in 3-30-J, 600-ps pulses, at intensities from 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{13}$ to \ensuremath{\sim}4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{15}$ W/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. The measured absorptions, hard-x-ray fluxes, and sub-keV emission properties are compared with hydrocode simulations. The results show strong collisional absorption, some Brillouin scattering, little suprathermal electron production, and efficient conversion of absorbed energy into sub-keV x rays, in general accord with wavelength-scaling predictions.