Creation of a homogeneous plasma column by means of hohlraum radiation for ion-stopping measurements

• Published in: arXiv.org 2014-02
• Main Authors: Faik, Steffen, Tauschwitz, Anna, Basko, Mikhail M, Maruhn, Joachim A, Rosmej, Olga, Rienecker, Tim, Novikov, Vladimir G, Grushin, Alexander S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; Density; Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow; Gold; Hydrodynamics; Ion beams; Ionization; Shock waves
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1304.7027

In this work, we present the results of two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of a hohlraum target whose outgoing radiation is used to produce a homogeneously ionized carbon plasma for ion-beam stopping measurements. The cylindrical hohlraum with gold walls is heated by a frequency-doubled (\(\lambda_l = 526.5\) \(\mu m\)) \(1.4\) \(ns\) long laser pulse with the total energy of \(E_l = 180\) \(J\). At the laser spot, the peak matter and radiation temperatures of, respectively, \(T \approx 380\) \(eV\) and \(T_r \approx 120\) \(eV\) are observed. X-rays from the hohlraum heat the attached carbon foam with a mean density of \(\rho_C = 2\) \(mg/cm^3\) to a temperature of \(T \approx 25\) \(eV\). The simulation shows that the carbon ionization degree (\(Z \approx 3.75\)) and its column density stay relatively stable (within variations of about \(\pm7\%\)) long enough to conduct the ion-stopping measurements. Also, it is found that a special attention should be paid to the shock wave, emerging from the X-ray heated copper support plate, which at later times may significantly distort the carbon column density traversed by the fast ions.