Development of Metal-Doped Polymer Ablation Materials

We have investigated two polymeric materials for incorporating high-Z metallic elements into ablation layers. Although each method ut~lizes solution-coating techniques, the materials and the resulting structures are basically different. The first, sulfonated polystyrene, which has a metal content of up to 5 atomic percent, is easily prepared and can easily be coated from solution. The second material is a styrene-butadiene copolymer in which stable iron colloids are dispersed. In sulfonated polystyrene the metal atoms are expected to be homogeneously dispersed in the polystyrene matrix on the molecular scale. In the metal-colloidseeded polymer the metal dispersion is less uniform, but a broader range of average Z is possible.