Investigation of femtosecond collisional ionization rates in a solid-density aluminium plasma

S M Vinko; O Ciricosta; T R Preston; D S Rackstraw; C R D Brown; T Burian; J Chalupský; B I Cho; H-K Chung; K Engelhorn; R W Falcone; R Fiokovinini; V Hájková; P A Heimann; L Juha; H J Lee; R W Lee; M Messerschmidt; B Nagler; W Schlotter; J J Turner; L Vysin; U Zastrau; J S Wark

doi:10.1038/ncomms7397

Investigation of femtosecond collisional ionization rates in a solid-density aluminium plasma

Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 3:6:6397. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7397.

Authors

S M Vinko¹, O Ciricosta¹, T R Preston¹, D S Rackstraw¹, C R D Brown², T Burian³, J Chalupský³, B I Cho⁴, H-K Chung⁵, K Engelhorn⁶, R W Falcone⁷, R Fiokovinini¹, V Hájková³, P A Heimann⁸, L Juha³, H J Lee⁸, R W Lee⁹, M Messerschmidt¹⁰, B Nagler⁸, W Schlotter⁸, J J Turner⁸, L Vysin³, U Zastrau¹¹, J S Wark¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
² Department of Plasma Physics, AWE Aldermaston, Reading RG7 4PR, UK.
³ Institute of Physics ASCR, Na Slovance 2, Prague 8 18221, Czech Republic.
⁴ 1] Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Gwangju 500-712, Korea [2] Department of Physics and Photon Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Korea.
⁵ Atomic and Molecular Data Unit, Nuclear Data Section, IAEA, PO Box 100, Vienna A-1400, Austria.
⁶ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, California 94720, USA.
⁷ 1] Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, California 94720, USA [2] Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
⁸ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
¹⁰ National Science Foundation BioXFEL Science and Technology Center, 700 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, New York 14203, USA.
¹¹ IOQ, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, Jena 07743, Germany.

PMID: 25731816
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7397

Abstract

The rate at which atoms and ions within a plasma are further ionized by collisions with the free electrons is a fundamental parameter that dictates the dynamics of plasma systems at intermediate and high densities. While collision rates are well known experimentally in a few dilute systems, similar measurements for nonideal plasmas at densities approaching or exceeding those of solids remain elusive. Here we describe a spectroscopic method to study collision rates in solid-density aluminium plasmas created and diagnosed using the Linac Coherent light Source free-electron X-ray laser, tuned to specific interaction pathways around the absorption edges of ionic charge states. We estimate the rate of collisional ionization in solid-density aluminium plasmas at temperatures ~30 eV to be several times higher than that predicted by standard semiempirical models.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.