Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 4 (1995) 242-249.

Printed in the UK

Spectroscopy of high-temperature matter heated by laser plasma x-rays

lstvkn B Foldest
KFKI, Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, H-1525 Budapest, POB 49, Hungary

Received 26 August

1994, in

final form 2 November 1994

Abstract. A review of x-ray spectroscopy o f radiatively heated matter is given f the possible methods for x-ray conversion o f laser together with a summary o radiation. Gold microcavity targets proved to be applicable to carry out absorption spectroscopy of radiatively heated CH foils from I eV to 100 eV temperature. Targets with embedded boron layers were also applied for investigatingthe radiative bumthrough both with transmission and emission spectroscopy. The results obtained with both methods are in good agreement with the Mum hydrocode with SNOP opacities and with the simple consideratlons for the degenerate state in the early stage of heating.

1. Introduction

The study of laser produced plasmas has been motivated in recent decades mainly by the search for inertially confined fusion plasmas. Over recent years applications for studying properties, such as opacities of hightemperature matter, have also attracted interest mainly because of the astrophysical applications. Highpower lasers can produce plasmas with temperatures above 1 keV and densities near to that of solid matter. Laser generated plasmas are, however, far from homogeneous-they generally have steep density and temperature gradients. Nonlinear laser-plasma interactions also destroy the homogeneous illumination of a target, which prevent-together with the RayleighTaylor instability-compression of the fusion capsule toward fusion conditions. In contrast, x-ray heated matter is free from strong gradients, a homogeneous plasma can be created and thus x-ray heated matter is more appropriate for investigating high-temperature opacities. Also, instead of the directly driven laser fusion, a more uniform illumination of the fusion target can be obtained by illuminating it indirectly, i.e. with x-rays after conversion of the laser radiation. Radiative heating of matter can thus be used for (indirectly driven) inertial confinement fusion as well as for studying properties such as opacities of high-temperature matter. This can be done because high conversion of laser radiation to x rays can be obtained in high-Z plasmas. The reason why highZ matter is appropriate for efficient x-ray conversion lies in the fact that the opacity, i.e. the frequency

averaged photoabsorption coefficient, increases with Z. Consequently a thin layer of high-Z matter is already opaque for the x-rays generated in the plasma; they will therefore be reabsorbed and again reemitted in it leading to the prevalence of radiation heat conductivity and to an efficient conversion. In this paper we first summarize the possible schemes for x-ray conversion. Examples for opacity measurements and experiments for studying the radiative bumthrough using the converter foil method are then given. The main aim of this paper is to give a summary of recent experiments carried out with the high power Asterix iodine laser, obtaining high x-ray temperature (T 100 eV) with the use of a Hohlraum converter. Results on x-ray bumthrough experiments on plastic~foils and on layered targets are given.
2. X-ray conversion

t Also at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik, D-85748

Gaxhing, Germany (visiting fellow 1992-93).
0963-0252/95/020242+08$19.50 0 1995 IOP Publishing Ltd

The first reports on the possibility of an efficient conversion of laser radiation to x-rays go back to 1978 [l]. The early works, however, either gave a qualitative spectrum of the converter, or they gave a single quantitative value for the conversion efficiency. In the latter case measurements were generally taken with the use of filtered photodiodes, i.e. without spectral resolution. Quantitative data with spectral resolution, i.e. absolutely calibrated spectra in the 1-25 nm range were given eight years later [2]. In that work absolutely measured x-ray spectra were compared for different elements at moderate, 3 x 1013 W laser intensities at the wavelength of 0.53 pm. As seen in figure 1, by increasing the atomic number Z the conversion efficiency will reach 10% first for AI. It reaches a much

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of high-temperature matter

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temperatures well above 100 eV. Radiation temperatures up to 300 eV have recently been obtained [12]. The closed configuration provides a high luminosity due to the absorption and re-emission of x rays on the cavity wall. The sample to be investigated is illuminated from several directions, thus also providing a uniform illumination. As the x-ray source iesimilarly to the thick converter-the front side of the converter, care must be taken to avoid the negative effects of laser reflection and plasma blow-off 1131.

3. Experiments with converter foils

In order to gain a deep insight into the properties of xray heated matter, investigations have been carried out with low-2 matter. The simple electronic structure of the low-2 elements offers a good possibility to compare experimental results with theoretical calculations. The dynamics of x-ray heating of low-2 matter was investigated in a previous experiment with the converter foil method [I41 in the modest temperature range of 30 eV with the use of a 15 J Nd laser. The experimental set-up is shown in figure 4(u) (it will be compared with the microcavity configuration in the next section). A 300 nm thick Au foil on a 1 p m substrate was used as an x-ray converter. The absorber foil was situated at a distance d behind the converter. The temporal development of the radiative bumthrough of a thin Be foil showed how the cold, solid Be is transformed into a hot ionized plasma. Figure 2 shows streaked spectra of x-ray heated Be. In figure 2(u) the Au source spectrum-which could be well approximated by a 50 eV Planckian-can be seen. This is compared in figure 2(b) to the transmission spectrum of 0.5 p m cold Be which was situated far away (d = 350 mm distance) from the source. The foil is fairly transparent below the K-edge of cold solid Be at 112 eV, and it is opaque above it. Figure 2(c) shows the case when the absorber is brought so close to the source that the heating x-ray flux is S, = 5 x 10" W cm-'. In this case it can be followed how the cold, soIid material is transformed to a highly ionized gas. In the beginning the K-edge seems to be shifted toward energies below the cold K-edge which moves t o higher energies with subsequent heating. This observation was explained in the paper as the thermal smoothing of the Fermi edge. We shall retum to this point when discussing carbon data. In the later stage of heating, i.e. at t = 2 ns, the region above the K-edge becomes transparent with an absorption spectrum characteristic to ionized Be. Note that the He-like absorption lines dominate in the spectrum at 124 and at 140 eV. A comparison with simulations using the MULTI [ 161 multigroup hydrocode with SO opacity groups [I71 refers to a Be temperature of 25 eV by this time. The particular importance of the precise treatment of line broadening mechanisms was shown therein because radiation transport takes place between the absorption lines in a region where the line wings overlap. A good agreement between experiment
243

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atomic iiuiiiber Z Figure 1. X-ray energy per solid angle emitted between 1 and 25 nm as a function o f the atomic number o f the target material. The total conversion energy (right scale) was obtained by integration over the full solid angle. Intensity, 3 x 1013 W cm-'; pulse duration, 3 ns; wavelength, 0.53 g m [2]. higher, (40%) conversion at higher 2 numbers, i.e. for Sn and W with 2 >r 40. Even higher x-ray conversion can be obtained by heating thick Au targets using lasers of shorter wavelengths. Conversion to thermal x-ray radiation up to SO% could be obtained by using h = 0.35 p m [3] and 0.26 p m [4] laser radiation. The obtained xrays were thermal becauseas these works show-the conversion to the harder M-band radiation is negligible up to an intensity of lOl4 W The x-ray conversion experiments can be well described either by computer simulations [4,5] or by analytical models [6,7]. The advantage of using thick targets is the high available conversion. The drawback, however, is the existence of the plasma blow-off and reflected laser radiation into the same direction. In order to eliminate these problems and to obtain more homogeneous x-ray source, experiments were camed out by the so called converter foil method [S,9]. In this case a thin Au foil o f 1W300 nm thickness is irradiated by the laser beam. If the converter foil is thick enough to absorb all the laser radiation but thin enough to transmit a significant part of the x-ray flux toward its rear side, its rear side emission can well be used as x-ray source free of laser light [lo]. This simple and most often used method leads to a 30% conversion at low laser intensities with a several nanosecond pulse duration [8], whereas less than 10% conversion of the high-power 1 ns pulse of the NOVA laser was achieved, corresponding to a brightness temperature of 100 eV [9]. The advantage of this arrangement is that it can provide a homogeneous Lambertian x-ray source. A complementary arrangement is to carry out xray spectroscopy in closed microcavities [ll]. This arrangement gives the highest x-ray brightness with

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of high-temperature matter

Thus it is heated not only by the x-rays from the direct

laser spot but also by x-rays from the other wall elements of the cavity. A plastic diaphragm served to shield the gold emission from the edge of the diagnostic hole. A 5000 1 mm-' transmission grating spectrometer with an x-ray streak camera was used as a detector. The spectral resolution was 0.07 nm and the temporal resolution was 30 ps. The temperature in the cavity was monitored at each laser shot by a separate spectrometer. The radiation temperature of the gold wall of the cavity was found to be between 100 and 120 eV. We chose carbon containing plastics as the subject of our investigations, partly because of the still simple electronic structure of carbon and partly because of its applicability in ICF as an ablator material for the DT pellet. Bumthrough experiments for carbon were carried out using 1-4 p m thick plastic absorbers. Note that even in the case of radiative bumthrough measurement the plasma density and temperature becomes strongly uniform as a consequence of radiative heating. The main purpose of these experiments was however the investigation of the dynamics of bumthrough and not the direct opacity measurement with a single very homogeneous layer. The comparison with the opacity models follows in this case through hydrocodes. Figure 5 shows the time evolution of x-ray transmission through a 1.9 p m (i.e. 0.2 mg cmT2) parylene foil within the spectral range of our observation, i.e. 250 to 600 eV. Note that the transmission of cold CH is practically zero (about above the cold K-edge (283.84 eV) and it remains less than 1% below 400 eV xray energy. Transmission is obtained by normalizing the absorption spectra to the corresponding source spectra. It can be seen that x-ray heating of the material is already started near to the K-edge 100 ps before the peak of the heating pulse. As the material is heated up and carbon becomes strongly ionized, a characteristic transmission window can he observed between the Helike C4+ls2-ls2p and 1s'-ls3p absorption lines. The transmission in this window strongly increases reaching more than 60% within the next 200 ps. By this time, i.e. 100 ps after the peak of the heating pulse, the Hlike absorption lines also appear, referring to the strong radiative heating of carbon. Calculations of the spectrum with the M U L n hydrocode together with a post-processor [I61 are in good agreement with the observed spectrum. The applied approximations were the same as in the case of the above mentioned Be experiment. The simulations refer to a temperature near to 100 eV in the radiatively heated f o i l . Figure 6 shows the case of a thicker 3 fim parylene foil which remains colder than the thinner one. The temporal variation (shift) of the K-edge was investigated here, comparing it to the data for a cold foil. In figure 6(a) a typical case is shown for a cold CH foil. In this case the plastic foil was far away from the target in order to remain cold for the whole pulse duration. The sharp K-edge shows that the foil practically does not transmit the gold radiation above it. The K-edge is red shifted at the initial stage of the pulse, i.e. I00 ps before the peak
245

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thermal x rays

low-Z material

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Figure 4. Schemes of set-ups for the measurement of absorption spectra with the converter foil method [I51 (a) and with the Hohlraum arrangement (b).

4. Experiments with Au microcavities

To study radiation properties of matter at even higher temperatures, a more efficient method for converting the laser energy to x-rays must be applied. This can be done if the laser light is converted to x-rays after injection into a gold microsphere, a so-called Hohlraum. The cavity wall is sufficiently thick that the emission takes place mainly toward the interior of the cavity, i.e. the heated side of the wall radiates. Clearly enough, the x-ray emission of a thick gold target is stronger from the front side than through the rear side, the xray conversion in the front side may reach 80% of the incident laser energy. Additionally in a closed cavity the radiation is absorbed and re-emitted by the cavity walls thus confining the radiation inside the Hohlraum. Similarly to the well known Ulbricht sphere the radiation can be efficiently transferred to an absorber [ll]. This possibility allows one to use the Hohlraum configuration for indirectly driven inertial confinement fusion, i.e. heating a DT fusion capsule by the radiation up to fusion conditions, or by using this highly concentrated radiation for x-ray spectroscopy. Hohlraum configurations enable us to study properties of low-2 matter radiatively heated above 100 eV. Figure 4(b) shows the arrangement for radiative bumthrough measnrement as compared with the converter foil method in figure 4(u). A laser energy of 200 J in a 400 ps pulse on the 0.44 p m wavelength (third harmonic of the Asterix IV laser) was focused into the gold microcavity of 1 mm diameter. The absorber foil was glued onto the 400 pm diagnostic hole.

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Energy (keV) Figure 5. X-ray transmission of 200 pg cm-2 carbon. Each spectrum is averaged for a 100 ps duration. Time zero is the peak o f the x-ray pulse o f the Au wall emission. as seen in figure 6(b). This red shift strongly decreases within the next'200 ps and becomes a blue shift at later stage as the CH layer is heated up. This behaviour is similar to that of x-ray heated beryllium [14] mentioned above. For the understanding of the early red shift o f ~ t h e K-edge we try to apply here the model of the thermal smoothing of the Fermi edge [14]. In this early stage of plasma evolution the target has a low temperature in the 1 eV range and a high density near to that of the solid matter. Numerical simulations [17] show that the carbon is mainly shock wave heated by this time to a temperature of 2 eV. Thus the plasma is in a partial degenerate state. The method, which takes into account this degeneracy at early times, starts from the level structure of cold solid C. In contrast to the sharp 1s state the 2s.2~and higher levels form a broad energy band which is filled at zero temperature with electrons up to the Fermi edge. Its distance to the 1s level is EF = 284 eV corresponding to the K-edge of the cold matter. The dominant absorption mechanism is photoionization which can be described by a simple formula
246

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of

high-temperature matter

kT = 5 eV for the transmission at t = -100 ps as illustrated with the broken curve in figure 6(b). The l eV. We must accuracy of the fit is better than i make some remarks here. This very simple calculation neglects spatial variations of the temperature and density in the absorber foil with all of their effects onto the level structure and the opacity. The observed good agreement is even more surprising if we note that the obtained temperature is significantly higher than the previous 1 eV for Be [14] and the temperature expected from the simulations. Clearly, for full understanding of the phenomenon, a model is necessary which takes into account the properties of degenerate matter and also the line-broadening mechanisms of the free ions. As the temperature increases the shape of the spectra will be more and more determined by the latter, i.e. by the electron-impact broadening of the red wing of the Kto L-shell transitions which is applied in the hydrocode simulations with SNOP opacities [14, 171. In order to obtain more direct information about the front of the temperature wave, experiments were carried out in layered bumthrough foils. We must mention here that similar experiments on CH plastic with the use of chlorinated tracer layer have been carried out already by Edwards et ai [21]. We chose a boron tracer because of its simple electronic stmcture and because its lines are spectrally well separated from that of carbon. In the case of figure 7 a 48 &g cm-* thick B K layer was situated behind 222 p g cm-' CH foil. The boron absorption lines appear rather soon. As time goes on the boron absorption feature is dominated by the Hlike absorption (B4+). This is illustrated at t = 0, i.e. at the peak of the laser pulse where besides the dominating H-like feature the He-like absorption lines are strong as well. In the later stage, i.e. at 300 ps, the situation strongly changes. The 'transmission' values well above one refer in fact to the self-emission of boron. By this stage the appearance of the self-emission of Li-like boron refers again to the high temperature mentioned above. It should be noted that in the carbon absorption spectra the absorption feature still dominates and self-emission of carbon is negligible even in the case of higher temperatures according to the simulations and the measurements. Nevertheless, the appearance of self-emission shows the limits of the applicability of absorption spectroscopy at high temperatures. Layered targets have also been used to demonstrate radiative bumthrough by x-ray re-emission spectroscopy [13,22]. The diagnostic equipment was the same as described above. The difference is that in the location of the absorber foil in figure 4(b) there'is a diagnostic hole. The re-emitter is situated on the wall on the opposite side of the Hohlraum, thus the re-emitted flux was observed by looking through the cavity. There is a 300 ps time window before the plasma fills up the cavity thus preventing observation of the re-emitted x-rays [22]. Before this time, however, the contrast of the experiment was very good and re-emission could well be studied in the Hohlraum configuration. A boron tracer layer was also used in the re-emission configuration. This is

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0 Energy (keV) Figure 7. X-ray transmission spectra of 48 wg B4C layered over 222 f i g cm-' carbon. Each spectrum is averaged for a 100 ps duration. Time zero is the peak of the x-ray pulse of the Au wall emission.

possible because the carbon emission strongly decreases above 4.2 nm, i.e. the hot carbon is optically thin to the boron line radiation. Boron-like carbon-has a simple electronic structure and can thus be used as a temperature monitor. Figure 8 shows the re-emission of a 35 pg cm-' thick B4C layer embedded in a depth of 120 p g cm-' thick carbon. The heating x-rays are incident onto the carbon layer. First the carbon re-emission lines appear. The carbon re-emission is immediately dominated by the H-like Lyman (Y radiation corresponding to the high temperature near I00 eV with the He-like lines to be clearly seen. The boron re-emission lines appear after a significant delay. This delay was determined directly from the time dependent deconvolved x-ray streak camera spectrum and it appeared to be 160=!=30ps. If the B4C layer is directly coupled to the radiation, i.e. in the case of zero carbon layer thickness, the boron lines appear in the same time as the carbon lines. Boron re-emission is immediately dominated by the H247

I B FSldes

Energy (keV) Figure 8. X-ray re-emission of B4Clayered on the rear side o f 120 1.19 cm-> carbon. Each spectrum is averaged for a 100 ps duration. Time zero is the peak of the x-ray pulse of Au wall emission. like boron line radiation. In the early stage He-like boron (B3+) can also. be observed. The hotter the reemitter becomes, the stronger the H - l i e boron feature dominates. The ObServatiOn is in good agreement with the MULTI simulations [16] as they suggest that, by the time o f the observed start of boron emission, the expected temperature reaches 70 eV in the depth of the boron layer.
5. Summary

The main subject of our work was to summarize the results with another x-ray conversion method, i.e. by using spherical gold microcavities (Hohlraums). The Hohlraums proved to be a very good choice to obtain very high conversion efficiency (and also coupling efficiency for the sample under investigation), thus obtaining radiation temperatures above 100 eV. Although the conditions in a microcavity are, in principle, not as clean as behind the converter foil, the obtained clean and explainable spectra show that the price one has to pay for the higher temperature is not too high. Closed geometry has the advantage that it can be used both for the study of the early stage of the bumthrough of solid matter to highly ionized plasma, and for opacity measurements of hightemperature matter above 1 MK. Absorption spectroscopy of x-ray heated thin CH plastic foil targets follows the time evolution of the sample from a few eV in the beginning up to a temperature of 100 eV. It was found that the K-edge of cold carbon is red shifted in the early stage of heating which is similar to the earlier finding for Be in the case of much weaker x-ray heating [14]. This observation was explained by the thermal smoothing of the Fermi edge of the solid matter applying the model of Schwanda and Eidmann [14] for degenerate matter up to a temperature of 5 eV. As the temperature increases the spectrum becomes dominated more and more by the absorption spectra of highly ionized carbon with intense He- and H-like features. Experiments with layered targets by using boron tracer layers show the limitations of the method of pure absorption spectroscopy,i.e. spectra were taken until the self-luminosity of the sample exceeded the luminosity of the backlighter. Examples of the transmission spectra of layered targets are given. Finally x-ray bumthrough experiments were carried out using the complementary method of emission spectroscopy. Here again boron tracer layers in a carbon sample were used. The delayed emission of the highly ionized boron is good agreement with the MULTI simulations and with the results of absorption spectroscopy.
Acknowledgments

In this paper we tried to illustrate the methods of spectroscopy of x-ray heated matter with some examples. First we briefly summarized the possible methods of conversion of laser radiation into x-rays. The main subject of the paper is the investigation of the properties of x-ray heated matter. Examples from previous works with the clean converter foil method were given for radiative bumthrough and opacity measurements with xray absorption spectroscopy.
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The work in the Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik was supported by the Commission of the European Communities in the framework of the EuratomIPP Association. The support of the Hungarian OTKA Foundation (contract No T007254) is also acknowledged. The author is especially thankful to K Eidmann for valuable discussions, suggestions and reading of the manuscript.
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