An Experimental Benchmark for Improved Simulation of Absolute Soft X-Ray Emission from Polystyrene Targets Irradiated With the Nike Laser

Abstract

Absolutely calibrated, time-resolved spectral intensity measurements of soft x-ray emission from laser-irradiated polystyrene targets are compared to radiation-hydrodynamic simulations that include our new postprocessor, Virtual Spectro. This new capability allows a unified, detailed treatment of atomic physics and radiative transfer in non-LTE conditions for simple spectra from low-Z materials as well as complex spectra from high-Z materials. The excellent agreement (within a factor approximately 1.5) demonstrates the powerful predictive capability of the codes for the complex conditions in the ablating plasma. The absolute spectral intensity measurements were made in the XUV region (hv approximately 0.1-1.0 keV) with transmission grating spectrometers with good time resolution (t approximately 0.3 ns) and moderate spectral resolution (E/delta E approximately 10). Comparison to data with high spectral resolution (E/delta E approximately 1000) emphasizes the importance of including radiation coupling in the quantitative simulation of emission spectra.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 03, 2005
Accession Number
ADA483432

Entities

People

  • A. N. Mostovych
  • C. M. Brown
  • Dennis G. Colombant
  • G. Holland
  • J. F. Seely
  • J. L. Weaver
  • M. Busquet
  • M. Klapisch
  • U. Feldman

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Couplings
  • Dielectric Polymers
  • Electrons
  • Emission
  • Films
  • Intensity
  • Light Sources
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Radiation
  • Radiative Transfer
  • Simulations
  • Soft X Rays
  • Spectra
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers