Production of photoionized plasmas in the laboratory using X-ray line radiation

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a laboratory method to produce photoionized plasmas using X-ray line radiation, enabling the simulation of high-temperature astrophysical conditions for benchmarking models.

Contribution

It experimentally implements a proposed technique for creating photoionized plasmas with high radiation temperatures using laser-driven X-ray sources.

Findings

Achieved a photoionization parameter of ~50 erg cm/s.

Plasma becomes collisionally dominated before the X-ray peak.

Technique can be extended to higher energy lasers for astrophysical modeling.

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, \xi = 4{\pi}F/Ne, reached values of order 50 erg cm/s, where F is the radiation flux in erg/cm2/s. 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.