Production of photoionized plasmas in the laboratory with x-ray line radiation

S. White, R. Irwin, J. R. Warwick, G. F. Gribakin, G. Sarri, F. P. Keenan, D. Riley, S. J. Rose, E. G. Hill, G. J. Ferland, B. Han, F. Wang, G. Zhao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper we report the experimental implementation of a theoretically proposed technique for creating a photoionized plasma in the laboratory using x-ray line radiation. Using a Sn laser plasma to irradiate an Ar gas target, the photoionization parameter, ξ=4πF/Ne, reached values of order 50ergcms-1, where F is the radiation flux in ergcm-2s-1. The significance of this is that this technique allows us to mimic effective spectral radiation temperatures in excess of 1 keV. We show that our plasma starts to be collisionally dominated before the peak of the x-ray drive. However, the technique is extendable to higher-energy laser systems to create plasmas with parameters relevant to benchmarking codes used to model astrophysical objects.

Original languageEnglish
Article number063203
JournalPhysical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume97
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 7 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11573040, Science Challenge Project No. TZ2016005, and Royal Society International Exchanges Grant No. IE161039. The authors gratefully acknowledge the expert support from the VULCAN laser facility. Supplementary data and raw images used are available [24] .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Physical Society.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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