Simultaneous diagnosis of radial profiles and mix in NIF ignition-scale implosions via X-ray spectroscopy

In a National Ignition Facility implosion, hydrodynamic instabilities may cause the cold material from the imploding shell to be injected into the hot-spot (hot-spot mix), enhancing the radiative and conductive losses, which in turn may lead to a quenching of the ignition process. The bound-bound features of the spectrum emitted by high-Z ablator dopants that get mixed into the hot-spot have been previously used to infer the total amount of mixed mass; however, the typical errorbars are larger than the maximum tolerable mix. We present here an improved 2D model for mix spectroscopy which can be used to retrieve information on both the amount of mixed mass and the full imploded plasma profile. By performing radiation transfer and simultaneously fitting all of the features exhibited by the spectra, we are able to constrain self-consistently the effect of the opacity of the external layers of the target on the emission, thus improving the accuracy of the inferred mixed mass. The model's predictive capabilities are first validated by fitting simulated spectra arising from fully characterized hydrodynamic simulations, and then, the model is applied to previously published experimental results, providing values of mix mass in agreement with previous estimates. We show that the new self consistent procedure leads to better constrained estimates of mix and also provides insight into the sensitivity of the hot-spot spectroscopy to the spatial properties of the imploded capsule, such as the in-flight aspect ratio of the cold fuel surrounding the hotspot

Time-resolved XUV Opacity Measurements of Warm-Dense Aluminium

The free-free opacity in plasmas is fundamental to our understanding of energy transport in stellar interiors and for inertial confinement fusion research. However, theoretical predictions in the challenging dense plasma regime are conflicting and there is a dearth of accurate experimental data to allow for direct model validation. Here we present time-resolved transmission measurements in solid-density Al heated by an XUV free-electron laser. We use a novel functional optimization approach to extract the temperature-dependent absorption coefficient directly from an oversampled pool of single-shot measurements, and find a pronounced enhancement of the opacity as the plasma is heated to temperatures of order the Fermi energy. Plasma heating and opacity-enhancement is observed on ultrafast time scales, within the duration of the femtosecond XUV pulse. We attribute further rises in the opacity on ps timescales to melt and the formation of warm-dense matter

Spectroscopy Of Ncncs At The Canadian Light Source: The Far-infrared Spectrum Of The Ν7 Region From 60-140 Cm−1

We report on the analysis of our spectrum from 60-140 \wn\ of the $\nu_7$ bending fundamental and associated hot band sequence of NCNCS, obtained on the far-infrared beamline at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron. The data were collected in May 2013, building upon what we learned conducting experiments in May 2011 and 2012 on this molecule. Calculations indicated that the $\nu_7$ system was very weak (one of the four weakest fundamental bands, all of comparable strength), but its spectrum became evident when 30 mTorr of NCNCS was admitted into the 2-m-long sample cell, through which the synchrotron beam passed 40 times. The best spectrum so far has been obtained with 121 mTorr of gas. Loomis-Wood plots reveal many branches, some of which were unambiguously assignable to $\Delta \nu_7 = +1$ subbands for $\nu_7^{\prime\prime} = 0, 1, 2, 3$ and for $K_a = 0, 1,2$ with $\Delta K_a = 0$ (a-type subbands) by comparison of lower-state combination differences with those obtained from the published pure-rotational data. We will continue the analysis by assigning as many a-type subbands as possible and by searching for b-type subbands with $\Delta K_a = \pm 1$ so that the connections between $K_a$-stacks can be measured. Finally, we will simultaneously fit the infrared and rotational data with a generalized semi-rigid bender Hamiltonian

Density functional theory calculations of continuum lowering in strongly coupled plasmas.

An accurate description of the ionization potential depression of ions in plasmas due to their interaction with the environment is a fundamental problem in plasma physics, playing a key role in determining the ionization balance, charge state distribution, opacity and plasma equation of state. Here we present a method to study the structure and position of the continuum of highly ionized dense plasmas using finite-temperature density functional theory in combination with excited-state projector augmented-wave potentials. The method is applied to aluminium plasmas created by intense X-ray irradiation, and shows excellent agreement with recently obtained experimental results. We find that the continuum lowering for ions in dense plasmas at intermediate temperatures is larger than predicted by standard plasma models and explain this effect through the electronic structure of the valence states in these strong-coupling conditions

Simulations of neon irradiated by intense X-ray laser radiation

We present simulations of the charge states produced by the interaction of intense X-ray laser radiation with a neon gas. We model the results of a recent experiment (Young et al., Nature 466, 56 (2010)), where mJ pulses of X-rays, with photon energies ranging from 800 to 2000 eV and pulse lengths ranging from 70 to 340 fs were incident on neon atoms at intensities of up to 10 18 W cm -2. Simulations using an adapted version of the SCFLY collisional-radiative code, which included the effect of electron collisions and a simple self-consistent temperature model, result in charge state distributions that are in good agreement with the experimental data. We calculate the electron temperature of the system during the evolution of the plasma, and comment upon the role that collisions may play in determining the charge state distributions as a function of the neon ion number density. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

Atomic processes modeling of X-ray free electron laser produced plasmas using SCFLY code

With the development of X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL), a novel state of matter of highly transient and non-equilibrium plasma has been created in laboratories. As high intensity X-ray laser beams interact with a solid density target, electrons are ionized from inner-shell orbitals and these electrons and XFEL photons create dense and finite temperature plasmas. In order to study atomic processes in XFEL driven plasmas, the atomic kinetics model SCFLY containing an extensive set of configurations needed for solid density plasmas was applied to study atomic processes of XFEL driven systems. The code accepts the time-dependent conditions of the XFEL as input parameters, and computes time-dependent population distributions and ionization distributions self-consistently with electron temperatures and densities assuming an instantaneous equilibration of electron energies. The methods and assumptions in the atomic kinetics model and unique aspects of atomic processes in XFEL driven plasmas are described.</p

Atomic processes modeling of X-ray free electron laser produced plasmas using SCFLY code

With the development of X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL), a novel state of matter of highly transient and non-equilibrium plasma has been created in laboratories. As high intensity X-ray laser beams interact with a solid density target, electrons are ionized from inner-shell orbitals and these electrons and XFEL photons create dense and finite temperature plasmas. In order to study atomic processes in XFEL driven plasmas, the atomic kinetics model SCFLY containing an extensive set of configurations needed for solid density plasmas was applied to study atomic processes of XFEL driven systems. The code accepts the time-dependent conditions of the XFEL as input parameters, and computes time-dependent population distributions and ionization distributions self-consistently with electron temperatures and densities assuming an instantaneous equilibration of electron energies. The methods and assumptions in the atomic kinetics model and unique aspects of atomic processes in XFEL driven plasmas are described.</p

A novel single-shot, spectrally resolved X-ray imaging technique of ICF relevant plasmas

A new diagnostic tool has recently been developed, which allows to get 2D images of X-ray sources with simultaneous energy encoded information. This is achieved by using a pinhole camera scheme in which a CCD camera, forced to operate in the single-photon regime, is used as a detector. The use of this method, initially limited to a single pinhole, multi-shot basis, has recently been extended to single-shot experiments typical of large scale installations using custom pinhole arrays of sub-10μm diameter. Preliminary tests have been carried out at the PALS facility and the diagnostics has been successfully employed in a PW environment in a recent experiment at RAL. The details of the method as well as some results from such recent experiments will be given. © 2011 SPIE

Simulations of the time and space-resolved X-ray transmission of a free-electron-laser-heated aluminium plasma

We present simulations of the time and space-resolved transmission of a solid-density aluminium plasma as it is created and probed with the focussed output of an x-ray free-electron-laser with photon energies ranging from the K-edge of the cold material (1560 eV) to 1880 eV. We demonstrate how information about the temporal evolution of the charge states within the system can be extracted from the spatially resolved, yet time-integrated transmission images. We propose that such time-resolved measurements could in principle be performed with recently developed split-and-delay techniques.</p