Measurement of Electron Temperature in High Energy Density Magnetic Reconnection Experiments

The conversion of magnetic field energy to bulk plasma kinetic energy via magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process throughout astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. For large-scale and low-dissipation systems, fast reconnection can lead to the breakup of the current sheet into magnetic islands, but many questions about this process remain unanswered. Experiments at large laser facilities are able to create these conditions by colliding two plumes of expanding plasmas with embedded magnetic fields generated through the Biermann battery effect. Self-emitted x-ray bremsstrahlung radiation can then be utilized to diagnose fundamental plasma parameters. By passing these x-rays through a gated pinhole array of varying filter materials, we are able to extract electron temperature though a novel diagnostic technique [1]. We make use of these results to study the evolution of electron temperature in fast reconnecting plasmas. Additionally, we present an automated pipeline that was developed for our analysis; the development of which was necessitated by the large volume of dissimilar data sets used in our measurements, and serves to calibrate and congruently isolate the x-ray data from any two given pinholes. 1. D. B. Schaeffer et al. Review of Scientific Instruments 92, 043524 (2021)