Time-resolved soft x-ray spectra from laser-produced Cu plasma

The volumetric heating of a thin copper target has been studied with time resolved x-ray spectroscopy. The copper target was heated by a plasma produced using the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Compact Multipulse Terawatt (COMET) laser. A variable spaced grating spectrometer coupled to an x-ray streak camera measured soft x-ray emission (800-1550 eV) from the back of the copper target to characterize the bulk heating of the target. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations were modeled in two-dimensions using the HYDRA code. The target conditions calculated by HYDRA were post-processed with the atomic kinetics code CRETIN to generate synthetic emission spectra. A comparison between the experimental and simulated spectra indicates the presence of specific ionization states of copper and the corresponding electron temperatures and ion densities throughout the laser-heated copper target. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4739071]