Evolution of Elastic X-ray Scattering in Laser-Shocked Warm Dense Li

ORAL

Abstract

Li foils were heated and compressed using shock waves driven by 4 ns long laser pulses. Separate 1 ns long laser pulses were used to generate a bright source of 2.96 keV Cl Ly-$\alpha$ photons for near-elastic x-ray scattering. Comparison with radiation hydrodynamics simulations shows that the plasma is highly coupled during the first several nanoseconds, then relaxes to a moderate coupling state at later times. Our main finding is that the near-elastic scattering amplitudes are quite sensitive to the mean ionization state $\overline{Z}$, and by extension to the choice of ionization model in the radiation-hydrodynamics simulations used to predict plasma properties within the shocked Li.

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Authors

  • Nathan Kugland

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Gianluca Gregori

    • University of Oxford

  • Sujit Bandyopadhyay

    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

  • Ceri Brenner

    • University of Strathclyde

  • Colin Brown

    • Imperial College, The Blackett Laboratory

  • Carmen Constantin

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Siegfried Glenzer

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Fida Khattak

    • Kohat University of Science and Technology

  • Andrea Kritcher

  • Chris Niemann

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Anke Otten

    • Technical University of Darmstadt

  • James Pasley

    • University of York

  • Alex Pelka

    • Technical University of Darmstadt

  • Markus Roth

    • Technical University of Darmstadt

  • Chris Spindloe

    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

  • Dave Riley

    • Queen's University, Belfast