Time- and space-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy of aluminum irradiated by a subpicosecond high-power laser

The ionization and recombination dynamics of transient aluminum plasmas was measured using point projection K-shell absorption spectroscopy. An aluminum plasma was produced with a subpicosecond beam of the 100-TW laser at the LULI facility and probed at different times with a picosecond X-ray backlighter created with a synchronized subpicosecond laser beam. Fourier-Domain-Interferometry (FDI) was used to measure the electron temperature at the peak of the heating laser pulse. Absorption X-ray spectra at early times are characteristic of a dense and rather homogeneous plasma, with limited longitudinal gradients as shown by hydrodynamic simulations. The shift of the Al K-edge was measured in the cold dense plasma located at the edge of the heated plasma. From the 1s-2p absorption spectra, the average ionization was measured as a function of time and was also modeled with a collisional-radiative atomic physics code coupled with hydrodynamic simulations.