Quantum interference of high-order harmonics from mixed gases

We present a theoretical study about the interference of the harmonics generated by a mixture of two gases, He-Ne. Our model is based on the electron quantum paths, a discrete number of electron trajectories, and continuum-bound transitions. A laser with intensity around 1014W/cm2 that interacts with a mixture of gases, He-Ne, produces an interference that is destructive at the low-order harmonics and oscillates between constructive and destructive near to cutoff. This destructive interference at high-order harmonics may be used to explore other transitions, which are currently hidden. At low-order harmonic frequencies, our numerical results are in very good agreement with experimental data. At higher-order harmonics, where there are no experimental data, comparison is with a Schrödinger solver

Comparison of Acceleration Methods in a Radiation Transport Code With Adaptive Mesh Refinement

New considerations about the acceleration of an iterative process to couple the radiation transport equation and the equation of matter temperature are presented in this paper. Two synthetic acceleration methods [diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA) and transport synthetic acceleration (TSA)] have been studied and analyzed, showing its strengths and weaknesses. This study is applied to an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) context, concluding in a better performance of DSA for coarse level resolutions with higher Sn, while TSA is better for finer level boxes and smaller Sn cases. These conclusions are applied to accelerate the resolution of an AMR problem

Producing ultrashort, ultraintense plasma-based soft-x-ray laser pulses by high-harmonic seeding.

Simulations show that intense plasma-amplified pulses of 100 fs duration and below are feasible by seeding specifically tailored plasma with an ultrashort pulse of high harmonic radiation. Seeding overcomes gain narrowing by driving amplifying media into saturation earlier, and compensates for reduced gain resulting from boosting the lasing transition linewidth. We conclude that ultrahigh intensities (above 1016 W cm-2) could be reached

Bloche-Maxwell treatment of amplification of high harmonic seed in soft x-ray laser amplifiers in both direct and chirped amplifications

Seeding plasma-based softx-raylaser (SXRL) demonstrated diffraction-limited, fully coherent in space and in time beam but with energy not exceeding 1 μJ per pulse. Quasi-steady-state (QSS) plasmas demonstrated to be able to store high amount of energy and then amplify incoherent SXRL up to several mJ. Using 1D time-dependant Bloch–Maxwell model including amplification of noise, we demonstrated that femtosecond HHG cannot be efficiently amplified in QSS plasmas. However, using Chirped Pulse Amplification concept on HHG seed allows to extract most of the stored energy, reaching up to 5 mJ in fully coherent pulses that can be compressed down to 130 fs

Equation of State for laboratory astrophysics applications

New improvements on the calculation of Equation of State (EOS) for laboratory astrophysics applications are presented. A new empirical multiplier for the EOS is included to the original quotidian equation of state (QEOS) model developed by More et al. (Phys. Fluids 31:3059, 1988) to adapt it to the available experimental data and ab initio molecular dynamics simulation. This model is used to obtain EOS tables suited for an adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic code with radiation transport for high energy density plasmas simulations called ARWEN introduced by Ogando and Velarde (J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf. 71(2–6):541, 2001)

Equation of State and Opacities for Warm Dense Matter.

We will present recent developments in the calculation of opacity and equation of state tables suitable for including in the radiation hydrodynamic code ARWEN [1] to study processes like ICF or X-ray secondary sources. For these calculations we use the code BiG BART to compute opacities in LTE conditions, with self-consistent data generated with the Flexible Atomic Code (FAC) [2]. Non-LTE effects are approximately taken into account by means of the improved RADIOM model [3], which makes use of existing LTE data tables. We use the screened-hydrogenic model [4] to derive the Equation of State using the population and energy of the levels avaliable from the atomic dat

Radiative properties for warm and hot dense matter

We will present calculations of opacities for matter under LTE conditions. Opacities are needed in radiation transport codes to study processes like Inertial Confinement Fusion and plasma amplifiers in X-ray secondary sources. For the calculations we use the code BiGBART, with either a hydrogenic approximation with j-splitting or self-consistent data generated with the atomic physics code FAC. We calculate the atomic structure, oscillator strengths, radiative transition energies, including UTA computations, and photoionization cross-sections. A DCA model determines the configurations considered in the computation of the opacities. The opacities obtained with these two models are compared with experimental measurements

Optimization of soft x-ray amplifiers by controlling plasma hydrodynamics.

Several coherent soft x-ray lasers are available for applications nowadays. Among them, plasma-based soft x-ray lasers promise to generate high-energy, highly coherent, short pulse beam. Solid target based amplifiers, due to the fact that his density is higher, should store a higher amount of energy. However, to-date output energy from seeded solid amplifiers remains as low as 60 nJ. We demonstrated that the extraction of the energy stored in the plasma is enhanced by carefully tailoring the plasma shape, to inhibit deleterious hydrodynamical effects. With 1 mm wide plasma, energy as high as 22 μJ in sub-ps pulse is achievable. Not only the energy extracted is higher in these tailored plasmas but also gain and pumping efficiency are increased by nearly a factor of ten as compared to the narrowest plasma amplifiers studied previously and here

Frequency-dependent opacity calculations for radiation transport simulations

We will present recent developments in the calculation of opacity tables suitable for including in the radiation hydrodynamic code ARWEN [1] to study processes like ICF or X-ray secondary sources. For these calculations we use the code BiG BART in LTE conditions, with self-consistent data generated with the Flexible Atomic Code (FAC) [2]. Non-LTE effects are approximately taken into account by means of the improved RADIOM model [3], which makes use of existing LTE data tables

Synchrotron X-ray photoabsorption spectroscopy of plasmas

Theoretical X-ray opacities are used in numerous radiative transfer simulations of plasmas at different temperatures and densities, for example astrophysics, fusion, metrology and EUV and X-rays radiation sources. However, there are only a reduced number of laboratories working on the validation of those theoretical results empirically, in particular for high temperature plasmas (mayor que 1eV). One of those limitations comes from the use of broad band EUV- X ray sources to illuminate the plasma which, among other issues, present low reproducibility and repetition rate [1]. Synchrotron radiation facilities are a more appropriate radiation source in that sense, since they provide tunable, reproducible and high resolution photons. Only their ?low? photon intensity for these experiments has prevented researchers to use it for this purpose. However, as new synchrotron facilities improve their photon fluxes, this limitation not longer holds [2]. This work evaluates the experimental requirements to use third generation synchrotron radiation sources for the empirical measurement of opacities of plasmas, proposing a pausible experimental set-up to carry them out. Properties of the laser or discharge generated plasmas to be studied with synchrotron radiation will be discussed in terms of their maximum temperatures, densities and temporal evolution. It will be concluded that there are encouraging reasons to pursue these kind of experiments which will provide with an appropriate benchmark for theoretical opacitie