Exotic Dense-Matter States Pumped by a Relativistic Laser Plasma in the Radiation-Dominated Regime

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Exotic Dense-Matter States Pumped by a Relativistic Laser Plasma in the Radiation-Dominated Regime

J. Colgan, J. Abdallah, Jr., A. Ya. Faenov, S. A. Pikuz, E. Wagenaars, N. Booth, O. Culfa, R. J. Dance, R. G. Evans, R. J. Gray, T. Kaempfer, K. L. Lancaster, P. McKenna, A. L. Rossall, I. Yu. Skobelev, K. S. Schulze, I. Uschmann, A. G. Zhidkov, and N. C. Woolsey

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 125001 – Published 18 March 2013

Abstract

In high-spectral resolution experiments with the petawatt Vulcan laser, strong x-ray radiation of $K K$ hollow atoms (atoms without $n = 1$ electrons) from thin Al foils was observed at pulse intensities of $3 \times 10^{20} W / {cm}^{2}$ . The observations of spectra from these exotic states of matter are supported by detailed kinetics calculations, and are consistent with a picture in which an intense polychromatic x-ray field, formed from Thomson scattering and bremsstrahlung in the electrostatic fields at the target surface, drives the $K K$ hollow atom production. We estimate that this x-ray field has an intensity of $> 5 \times 10^{18} W / {cm}^{2}$ and is in the 3 keV range.

Received 31 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.125001

Authors & Affiliations

J. Colgan¹, J. Abdallah, Jr.¹, A. Ya. Faenov^2,9, S. A. Pikuz², E. Wagenaars³, N. Booth⁴, O. Culfa³, R. J. Dance³, R. G. Evans⁵, R. J. Gray⁶, T. Kaempfer⁷, K. L. Lancaster⁴, P. McKenna⁶, A. L. Rossall³, I. Yu. Skobelev², K. S. Schulze⁷, I. Uschmann^7,10, A. G. Zhidkov⁸, and N. C. Woolsey³

¹Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
²Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 125412, Russia
³York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
⁴Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
⁵Department of Physics, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
⁶SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 ONG, United Kingdom
⁷Helmholtzinstitut Jena, Fröbelstieg 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany
⁸PPC Osaka University and JST, CREST, 2-1, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
⁹Quantum Beam Science Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Kizugawa, Kyoto 619-0215, Japan
¹⁰Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronic, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany