Spatially-resolved X-ray scattering measurements of a planar blast wave

We present X-ray scattering measurements characterizing the spatial temperature and ionization profile of a blast wave driven in a near-solid density foam. Several-keV X-rays scattered from a laser-driven blast wave in a carbon foam. We resolved the scattering in high resolution in space and wavelength to extract the plasma conditions along the propagation direction of the blast wave. We infer temperatures of 20–40 eV and ionizations of 2–4 in the shock and rarefaction regions of the blast wave. This range of measured ionization states allows for a detailed comparison between different models for the bound–free scattering. FLYCHK simulations of the temperature-ionization balance generally agree with the experimental values in the shocked region while consistently underestimating the ionization in the rarefaction.