Alternative methods of producing photoionised plasmas in the laboratory

We present the conceptual design of a new experiment to reproduce the atomic kinetics of astrophysical photoionised plasmas in the laboratory. In particular the problems of the high densities usually found in laboratory experiments and the production of high colour temperature radiation fields are discussed and solutions presented. Following an analytic discussion, which allows one to find a combination of elements, one for the radiation source and one for the element to be photoionized, the proposed experiment is modelled using existing experimental data for the radiation source and a collisional-radiative model to calculate the photoionisation history. The results indicate that this approach is feasible with current experimental parameters and techniques.