289 / 2023-04-25 15:36:56

Observations of Ionization Potential Depression in Warm Dense Matter with X-Ray Thomson Scattering

ionization potential depression, warm dense matter, X-ray Thomson scattering.

惯性约束聚变物理学 > 惯性约束聚变物理学-海报

Ionization potential depression (IPD) is a phenomenon that the threshold energy required to ionize an ion in dense plasmas by exciting one of the bound electrons to the continuum is lower than that of equivalent isolated ion^[1-2]. The IPD effect can significantly affect the properties of plasmas including its opacity and equation of state and therefore is great important for astrophysics, planetary science and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research. However, nowadays people lack the knowledge of IPD in different situations and find that it is difficult to investigate IPD from experimental measurements and theoretical calculations. Recent experiments deviate from the theoretical simulations^[3], while the theoretical results being different from each other. In the present report, we report our observations of IPD in warm dense carbon systems with X-ray Thomson scattering^[4]. By measuring the plasma condition data in different density carbon plasmas, we verify the IPD models and figure out the environment density effects on the ionization state of the plasmas. This work will improve our understanding of the atomic structure in plasmas under extreme state and promote developments of plasma physics in astrophysics, planetary science and inertial confinement fusion research.