Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science (OxCHEDS)

Abstract:

We employ a pseudopotential approach to investigate the screening of ionic cores in partially ionized plasmas. Here, the effect of the tightly bound electrons is condensed into an effective potential between the (free) valence electrons and the ionic cores. Even for weak electron-ion coupling, the corresponding screening clouds show strong modifications from the Debye result for elements heavier than helium. Modifications of the theoretically predicted x-ray scattering signal and implications on measurements are discussed. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

By use of high intensity XUV radiation from the FLASH free-electron laser at DESY, we have created highly excited exotic states of matter in solid-density aluminum samples. The XUV intensity is sufficiently high to excite an inner-shell electron from a large fraction of the atoms in the focal region. We show that soft-x-ray emission spectroscopy measurements reveal the electronic temperature and density of this highly excited system immediately after the excitation pulse, with detailed calculations of the electronic structure, based on finite-temperature density functional theory, in good agreement with the experimental results.

Abstract:

We present a proposal for testing the prediction of non-equilibrium quantum field theory below the Schwinger limit. The proposed experiments should be able to detect a measurable number of gamma rays resulting from the annihilation of pairs in the focal spot of two opposing high intensity laser beams. We discuss the dependence of the expected number of gamma rays with the laser parameters and compare with the estimated background level of gamma hits for realistic laser conditions.