# Kinetic modeling of x-ray laser-driven solid Al plasmas via particle-in-cell simulation

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a kinetic particle-in-cell simulation code, PICLS, with advanced models for XFEL-driven solid aluminum plasmas, providing improved agreement with experimental data over traditional models and highlighting the negligible impact of non-thermal electrons in specific conditions.

## Contribution

The paper presents a fully kinetic PIC simulation code with self-consistent radiation transport and Monte Carlo ionization models for XFEL-driven plasmas, advancing beyond traditional Maxwellian assumptions.

## Key findings

- PICLS simulations agree better with experiments than Stewart-Pyatt model
- Good quantitative agreement with CR code SCFLY results
- Non-thermal electrons have negligible effects under studied conditions

## Abstract

Solid-density plasmas driven by intense x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) radiation are seeded by sources of non-thermal photoelectrons and Auger electrons that ionize and heat the target via collisions. Simulation codes that are commonly used to model such plasmas, such as collisional-radiative (CR) codes, typically assume a Maxwellian distribution and thus instantaneous thermalization of the source electrons. In this study, we present a detailed description and initial applications of a collisional particle-in-cell code, PICLS, that has been extended with a self-consistent radiation transport model and Monte-Carlo models for photoionization and KLL Auger ionization, enabling the fully kinetic simulation of XFEL-driven plasmas. The code is used to simulate two experiments previously performed at the Linac Coherent Light Source investigating XFEL-driven solid-density Al plasmas. It is shown that PICLS-simulated pulse transmissions using the Ecker-Kr\"oll continuum-lowering model agree much better with measurements than do simulations using the Stewart-Pyatt model. Good quantitative agreement is also found between the time-dependent PICLS results and those of analogous simulations by the CR code SCFLY, which was used in the analysis of the experiments to accurately reproduce the observed K{\alpha} emissions and pulse transmissions. Finally, it is shown that the effects of the non-thermal electrons are negligible for the conditions of the particular experiments under investigation.