Atomic kinetics for isochoric heating of solid aluminum under short intense XUV free electron laser irradiation

An atomic configuration kinetics model that links the cold solid state, the heated solid state and the dilute plasma state is presented. It is based on a coherent implementation of the Fermi-Dirac statistics for the free electrons and a link between the cold solid elementary processes and the plasma elementary processes. This model allows us to follow the bound electron kinetics continuously from the cold solid state to the plasma state. The good agreement of the obtained spectra for the isochoric heating of solid aluminum under XUV free electron laser (XUVFEL) irradiation show the validity of this approach. The kinetics model has also been included in a 1D Lagrangian hydrodynamics code. This code is an essential tool for the design and the interpretation of warm/hot dense matter experiments.