title: Experimental benchmark for an improved simulation of absolute soft-x-ray emission from polystyrene targets irradiated with the Nike laser.
abstract: Absolutely calibrated, time-resolved spectral intensity measurements of soft-x-ray emission (hnu approximately 0.1-1.0 keV) from laser-irradiated polystyrene targets are compared to radiation-hydrodynamic simulations that include our new postprocessor, Virtual Spectro. This new capability allows a unified, detailed treatment of atomic physics and radiative transfer in nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium conditions for simple spectra from low-Z materials as well as complex spectra from high-Z materials. The excellent agreement (within a factor of approximately 1.5) demonstrates the powerful predictive capability of the codes for the complex conditions in the ablating plasma. A comparison to data with high spectral resolution (E/deltaE approximately 1000) emphasizes the importance of including radiation coupling in the quantitative simulation of emission spectra.
authors.affiliation: Plasma Physics Division, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Busquet
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Colombant
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Mostovych
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klapisch
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Seely
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Holland