Influence of atomic modeling on integrated simulations of laser-produced Au plasmas

Abstract

Time-integrated x-ray emission spectra of laser-irradiated Au disks were recorded using transmission grating spectrometry, at laser intensities of 10(13) to 10(14) W/cm(2). Radiation-hydrodynamics and atomic physics calculations were used to simulate the emitted spectra. Three major plasma regions can be recognized: the heat wave, the corona, and an intermediate region connecting them. An analysis of the spectral contribution of these three plasma regions to the integrated recorded spectrum is presented. The importance of accurate atomic modeling of the intermediate plasma region, between the corona and the heat wave, is highlighted. The influence of several aspects of the atomic modeling is demonstrated, in particular multiply-excited atomic configurations and departure from local thermal equilibrium.

Monte Carlo method for investigating population kinetics in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium plasmas

“…Due to the energy of states with K-shell vacancies being higher than 7 keV, which is far greater than the energy of photons and electrons in this experiment, changes in K-shell electrons were not taken into account. Taking Fe 15+ as an example, we calculate the maximum principal quantum number n to be 5, the configurations including: (2) 5 (3) 2 (4) 2 , (2) 5 (3) 2 (4) 1 (5) 1 , (2) 5 (3) 3 (5) 1 , (2) 5 (3) 3 (4) 1 , (2) 5 (3) 4 , (2) 5 (3) 2 (5) 2 , (2) 6 (3) 3 , (2) 6 (3) 2 (4) 1 , (2) 6 (3) 2 (5) 1 , (2) 6 (3) 1 (4) 2 ,(2) 6 (3) 1 (4) 1 (5) 1 , (2) 6 (3) 1 (5) 2 , (2) 7 (3) 2 , (2) 7 (3) 1 (4) 1 , (2) 7 (3) 1 (5) 1 , (2) 7 (4) 2 , (2) 7 (5) 2 , (2) 8 (3) 1 , (2) 8 (4) 1 , (2) 8 (5) 1 . For convenience, (2) 6 means 2s 2 2p 4 , 2s 1 2p 5 , 2s 0 2p 6 , the others are according to similar rules.…”

“…For instance, the outer atmosphere of the Sun, interstellar clouds, and some tenuous ionized gases are all under NLTE conditions [4,5]. These astrophysical environments contain high-energy particles, strong magnetic fields, radiation fields, and other factors that prevent them from reaching local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) [6][7][8]. In the laboratory, NLTE plasmas can be created using lasers, strong magnetic fields, or high voltages to simulate phenomena in astrophysics.…”

Hydrodynamic conditions in laser irradiated buried layer experiments

“…Several simulation codes codes were used in this work. 1D simulations were preformed using the planar Lagrangian code, Florence 8 , which uses NLTE tabulated atomic properties calculated with the atomic code SEMILLAC 9,10 . 2D simulations were preformed using the code Hydra 11 , using in-line NLTE calculated atomic properties from the DCA code 2 .…”