MD and FFM Electron Broadening for Warm and Dense Hydrogen Plasmas

Abstract

Direct integration of the semi‐classical evolution equation based on Molecular Dynamics simulations (MD) and the Frequency Fluctuation Model (FFM) have long been used to synthesize spectra accounting for ion dynamics. Cross comparisons of these approaches generally show results in good agreement. Recently, interest in low temperature (Te ∼ 1eV) and high density (Ne ∼ 1018 cm−3) hydrogen plasma spectroscopy has motivated extended applications of FFM. Arising discrepancies were found to originate in electron collision operators suggesting an improper use of impact approximations for warm and dense plasma conditions. In order to clarify this point, new useful cross comparisons between MD and FFM have been carried out for electron broadening.