Plasma-Based Studies on 4th Generation Light Sources

The construction of a short pulse tunable x-ray laser source will be a watershed for plasma-based and warm dense matter research. The areas we will discuss below can be separated broadly into warn dense matter (WDM) research, laser probing of near solid density plasmas, and laser-plasma spectroscopy of ions in plasmas. The area of WDM refers to that part of the density-temperature phase space where the standard theories of condensed matter physics and/or plasma statistical physics are invalid. Warm dense matter, therefore, defines a region between solids and plasmas, a regime that is found in planetary interiors, cool dense stars, and in every plasma device where one starts from a solid, e.g., laser-solid matter produced plasma as well as all inertial fusion schemes. The study of dense plasmas has been severely hampered by the fact that laser-based methods have been unavailable. The single most useful diagnostic of local plasma conditions, e.g., the temperature (T{sub e}), the density (n{sub e}), and the ionization (Z), has been Thomson scattering. However, due to the fact that visible light will not propagate at electron densities, n{sub e}, {ge} 10{sup 22} cm{sup -3} implies dense plasmas can not be probed. The 4th generation sources, LCLS and Tesla will remove these restrictions. Laser-based plasma spectroscopic techniques have been used with great success to determine the line shapes of atomic transitions in plasmas, study the population kinetics of atomic systems embedded in plasmas, and look at redistribution of radiation. However. the possibilities end for plasmas with n{sub e} {ge} 10{sup 22} since light propagation through the medium is severely altered by the plasma. The entire field of high Z plasma kinetics from laser produced plasma will then be available to study with the tunable source