Diagnosing plasma conditions in light ion beam fusion experiments using inner-shell x-ray line emission (abstract)a)

Abstract

Kα emission spectroscopy is an important diagnostic technique used for plasmas created in intense light ion beam experiments.b),c) Emission lines can be produced as 2p electrons drop down to fill 1s vacancies created by the ion beam. Bailey et al.b) reported the first spectroscopic measurements of Kα x-ray satellites in intense proton beam experiments on PBFA-II at Sandia. Kα emission spectra have also recently been observed in intense Li-beam experiments on PBFA-II.d) Two approaches are used to analyze time-integrated x-ray spectra. In the first, CRE calculations are performed to compute synthetic time-integrated spectra using plasma conditions predicted from radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. In the second approach, plasma conditions are deduced from Kα satellite line intensity ratios measured from the highest ionization stages observed in the experiments. Results will be presented from our analysis of recent PBFA-II x-ray spectra.