J. Phys.

IV France 133 (2006) 10651070

C
EDP Sciences, Les Ulis
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:2006133216
High density energy physics experiments on LULI 2000 facility
A. Benuzzi-Mounaix
1
, M. Koenig
1
, A. Ravasio
1
, T. Vinci
1
, N. Ozaki
1
,
S. Lepape
1
, M. Rabec Le Gloahec
1
, C. Michaut
2
, L. Boireau
2
, S. Bouquet
3
,
S. Brygoo
3
, E. Henry
3
, P. Loubeyre
3
, D. Riley
4
and K. Tanaka
5
1
Laboratoire pour lUtilisation des Laser Intenses (LULI), Unit Mixte CNRS-CEA,
cole Polytechnique, Universit Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France
2
Laboratoire de lUnivers et de ses Thories (LUTH), Observatoire de Paris,
92195 Meudon, France
3
Dpartement de Physique Thorique et Applique (DPTA), CEA-DIF, BP. 12,
91680 Bruyres-le-Chtel, France
4
Queens University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
5
Institute of Laser Engeneering, Osaka University, Yamada-oka 2-6, Suita,
Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Abstract. We present here a summary of various and preliminary experiments performed on the new facility
LULI 2000. Four topics in the High Density Energy Physics have been investigated:
a- Equation of State: we studied pre-compressed water, one of most abundant component of Uranus and
Neptunes mantle. We used a recent technique based on generating a shock into a diamond anvil cell
pre-compressed target. Some new data on EOS surface in the range 2-3 Mbar have been obtained.
b- X-ray Thomson scattering: a strongly coupled and degenerated Aluminum plasma has been produced
and probed by Ti He-alpha radiation. By using a curved spectrometer, the scattered spectrum has been
measured a Compton shift from electrons has been put in evidence.
c- Astrophysics in the laboratory: A radiative supercritical shock has been produced into a gas cell lled
with a low density of Xenon (0.1-0.3 bar). Various diagnostics have been implemented to determine
electron density variation, precursor and shock velocities, the 2D shape of the shock at different times
and electron temperature.
d- Laser accelerated yer: different yer plate targets have been tested. Typical shock loaded material was
fused-quartz plate. Flyer velocities up to 55 km/s have been measured.
1. INTRODUCTION
High energy density physics (HEDP) includes a large part of a phase diagram of a material (substantially
P > 1 Mbar). More precisely, the denition of high energy density conditions is that these conditions exist
when the external energy density applied to the material is comparable to the materials roomtemperature
energy density [1]. By considering that for a molecule of hydrogen, for a liquid and for a solid the energy
density at room temperature is from 10
9
to 10
11
J/m
3
, the HEDP is nowadays easy accessible with a high
power laser. Therefore, laser is a very important tool to obtain experimental data that are of fundamental
importance to validate and discriminate complicated theoretical calculations. The HEDP spans a wide
range of physics area among which equation of state, shock physics and high density astrophysics. In
this paper we will present a summary of experiments performed on LULI 2000 facility on these topics.
The two laser beams of LULI 2000 laser delivered a total energy up to 800 J at 2 during 1.5 ns
(at pulse). The focal spot was smoothed by Phase Zone Plates and had a diameter at FWMH of 500 m
(or 800 m), giving an intensity on target I
L
< 10
14
W/cm
2
.

1066 JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE IV
2. EQUATION OF STATE OF THE PRE-COMPRESSED WATER
The mantle of Neptune and Uranus mainly consists of ice layers containing water, methane
and ammonia. These layers are characterised by low temperatures (2000-8000

k) and high pressures
(0.2-6 Mbar). The magnetic eld of both planets has been measured by Voyager 2 probe [2] and has been
found larger than expected and asymmetrical, originating from these ice layers. Ab initio calculations
[3] predict a transition insulator/metal for water near 300 GPa. In this context, previous laser experiment
we performed were devoted to get new EOS data in a pressure regime (P > 1 Mbar) where no points
existed and to measure simultaneously the temperature and reectivity from which an estimation of the
conductivity can be deduced [4] . A large number of reliable data on principal Hugoniot in the range 1-7
Mbar have been obtained. The goal of experiment presented here was to get data off the Hugoniot, i.e.
to explore the water phase diagram and to approach the Neptune isentrope. To this aim, we used a recent
technique based on combining static and dynamic compression. The laser shock was then generated
into the water pre-compressed by Diamond Anvil Cell technique [5]. On Figure 1, a principle of the
experiment and the pre-compressed water cell are shown. The DAC cell was closed on the laser side by a
150 m of diamond with on each side an very thin Al layer and on the rear side by a sapphire window. A
water pre-compression up to 5 kbar has been obtained. The target was composed by a quartz layer (27 m)
used as reference material in impedance matching method and by pre-compressed water. The diagnostics
we used (the same of the Celliers et al [4]) were rear side selfemission to infer the temperature and
two Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reector (VISARs) [6]. Taking into account that our laser
intensity was high enough to metallise both quartz [7] and water [4], the VISAR diagnostics gave us the
quartz and water shock velocities and allowed us to apply impedance matching technique to have a point
on EOS of pre-compressed water. At the same time VISAR measured the reectivity of the shock front.
a)
Al flash
LASER
Laser
Diamond
precompressed
H
2
0
Saphire
quartz
Towards diagnostics
(VISARs and self-emission)
b)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Sesame, P0 = 0 GPa
Sesame, P0 = 0,1 GPa
Sesame, P0 = 0,5 GPa
P0 = 0 GPa
P0 = 0,1 GPa
P0 = 0,5 GPa
P
r
e
s
s
i
o
n

(
M
b
a
r
)
Densit (g.cm)
-3
^
Figure 1. a) The precompressed water cell : b) Our points compared with Hugoniot given by SESAME at different
precompressions.
On Figure 1b our measurements are presented on the (,P) plane.
These measurements are the rst data obtained with LULI2000. They are compatible with SESAME
tables [8], but they are affected by a large error bar principally due to not well adapted target layer (the
laser energy available was the half of the laser energy expected) and also to quartz preheating problem
which deteriorated image quality.
3. X-RAY SCATTERINGTHOMSON EXPERIMENT
The study of warm dense matter is of fundamental interest to several branches of fundamental physics,
including astrophysics, geophysics and inertial connement fusion (ICF). To provide independent tests
IFSA-2005 1067
a)
57
I=3 10
1 3
Wcm
- 2
I=10
1 5
Wcm
- 2
Towards
VISAR and
self emission
diagnostics
(4.5mCH6mAl4. 5 mCH)
b)
2.58 2.6 2.62 2.64 2.66 2.68

Figure 2. a) the experimental set-up ; b) Scattered () and input () spectra on a shocked target 0.5 ns after the
pulse maximum.
of the microscopic models of dense matter for material properties such as the opacity, equation of state or
conductivity, a few years ago a novel X-ray scattering technique has been developed [9]. Such technique
is the extension of Thomson scattering with optical laser [10] to the hard x-rays probes. By this way it is
possible to have access to higher densities and by solving spectrally the scattered photons to have directly
information on electron density and temperature. Glenzer et al [11] measured the x-ray scattering in the
non-collective regime, i.e the scattering parameter dened as p/s (p is the probe wavelength and
s is the electron screening length ) is 1.
Here we present the rst spectrally resolved Thomson X-ray scattering in the quasi-collective regime
( 1) in which the role of ionic-acoustic and electron plasma wave resonances becomes to be important.
The experimental set-up is shown on gure 2a.
On each shot we measured the transmitted Ti He alpha source by a at quartz spectrometer, the
scattered light at 57

by a LiF cylindrical crystal, the temperature, the reectivity and the velocity of the
shock in the rear side CH layer by using VISAR and self emission diagnostic. From the shock velocity in
the plastic, we were able to determine the parameters of the aluminumplasma such as density, temperature
which were typically 5 g/cm3 and 3.5 eV respectively.
In gure 2b, we present a comparison between the input and the scattered spectra 0.5 ns after the maxi-
mumof the pulse. We did observe a clear shift (10 2 m) which could correspond to a Compton shift on
free electrons or to a shift on electronic waves. Calculations to discriminate between these two phenom-
ena are in progress. Any peak Rayleigh has been observed. Apossible explanation is that the ionic density
uctuations have a characteristic length (
i
) smaller than the probed wavelength (
p
=
0
/(2sin /2)).
For the late probe data, the shift was typically 3 times lower (3 m 2 m). The plasma
conditions in that case are the following: 0.8 g/cm
3
for the density and 1.5 eV for the temperature,
the scattering regime being now non-collective ( 0.6). This shift can be interpreted in different ways.
One possibility is that it could represent a reappearance of the Rayleigh component due to the increase of

i
, which would become greater than
s
. To conclude, also inelastic scattering due to bound-free electron
transitions must be evaluated, since it could be important for medium Z plasmas and low ionization
rate [12]
To validate these different interpretations and to reproduce theoretically the scattered spectra,
one has to extend usual approximation (such as random phase approximation) to calculate the x-ray
dynamic form factor in a highly coupled plasma regime [12]. Developments in this direction are in
progress.
1068 JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE IV
4. ASTROPHYSICS IN LABORATORY: A STUDY OF A RADIATIVE SHOCK
In the framework of the Laboratory Astrophysics, we present an exhaustive study of a radiative shock.
A strong shock is driven in a layered piston (CH-Ti-CH) accelerating into a gas cell ( 60 km/s) lled
with Xenon at lowpressure (0.1-0.3 bar) producing a radiative supercritical shock [13]. The experimental
set-up is shown on gure 3.
On each shot we measured shock radial expansion, the shock temperature, both shock and precusrsor
velocities, both shock and precursor 2D shapes and the precursor absorption. As exemple, on gure 4 a
typical self emission image is presented. We notice a rst low emission coming from the pusher. After
this signal, we have the strong emission coming from the Xenon. By performing an absolute calibration
Figure 3. Experimental set-up.
Figure 4. On the right: typical image obtained with self-emission. On the left: experimental temperature deduced
from the self emission image, compared with 1D and 2D simulations.
IFSA-2005 1069
of the optical system and of the streak camera, we deduce from the emission a temperature of the shock
of 15eV. Our results are well reproduced by 2D code which includes the radial expansion of the front
expansion.
5. FLYER PLATES
Laser-accelerated yer technique had been studied to access extremely high-pressures in materials due
to the impact [14]. Additionally, recent experiment has demonstrated very smooth pressure loading like
isentropic compression (ICE) with a density-graded projectile (expanding plasma) [15]. However, the
conditions of yer and impacted materials have not been sufciently investigated.
In this experiments, three types of yer targets; (i) simple metal yer (aluminium single foil), (ii) the
multi-layeredone [16], and(iii) high-Zmetal bufferedbylow-densityplastic foam[17], were investigated.
Our typical shock-loaded material was a fused silica plate. All diagnostics were optical: the rear-side
ones were two VISARs [6] working at two different wavelengths (1064 and 532 nm) and a self-emission
Figure 5. On the left : self emission image, On the right a VISAR image.
Figure 6. Temperature data vs. shock velocity and pressure. () are our experimental results, () SESAME table
data and (- -) Kerley new EOS data.
1070 JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE IV
diagnostic calibrated for brightness temperature; on the transverse side we also had a shadowgraphy
diagnostic to infer the rear side state of the yer. In this paper, we present only the simplest yer scheme,
i.e., the aluminium foil case. In the case of the simple aluminum foil, the rear surface is accelerated
when the shock breaks out. However due to the high intensity we used ( 10
14
W/cm
2
), the rear side is
vaporized and a plasma ow is created. As long as the yer travels toward to the impact quartz target, the
length of this plasma ow increases so a weak accelerating shock is expected before the bulk density part
of the aluminum foil arrives and produces a second strong shock which overtakes the weak one. This is
exactly what we observed (g. 5) either on the self-emission and VISAR diagnostics.
Following the shock velocity, its reectivity and self-emission simultaneously in quartz, we were
able to determine the temperature vs pressure assuming the recent quartz EOS data obtained at Omega
[18]. As observed in gure 6, our data cross the phase transition occurring around 1 Mbar and 1 eV. The
regular SESAME.[8] table (3587) do not show any evidence of this transition whereas recent EOS from
Kerley [19] exhibits such transition. Our data are in better agreement with Kerley EOS even if error bars
in our experiment are still too important for nal temperature results to show a clear change in the slope
around velocities of 12 km/s.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The new LULI 2000 facility is particularly suitable to study HDEP physics. Preliminary, but reliable
experiments have been obtained. For the future, other experiments on these subjects have been already
planned in order to ameliorate some aspects as precision of measurements and also to conrm some
surprising and at the same time very interesting results (e. g. x-ray scattered spectra).
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