Characterizing a Cu X-Ray Source For Photoionization Front Experiments on Omega-60

X-ray radiation interacts with matter in astrophysical systems throughout our Universe including accretion disks, supernova remnants, and photoionization (PI) fronts. PI fronts play a role in understanding the evolution of the early Universe. A PI front marks the region within a gas or plasma where the process of PI predominantly occurs. PI fronts formed as the first stars heated and ionized surrounding gasses. After the Cosmic “Dark Ages”, radiation from the first stars reionized the Universe after hot matter from the Big Bang cooled and recombined. We aim to study the evolution of PI fronts in a scaled laboratory experiment by creating an x-ray source that is incident on a neutral gas. Characterization of the x-ray source is key to understanding the formation and evolution of the PI front. We show preliminary data analysis of x-ray emission, estimated radiation temperature, and the evolution of the laser-irradiated copper foil conducted using soft x-ray images, emission spectra, and DANTE data on Omega-60. This data serves to characterize the Cu driver to further aid in the investigation of PI front.

This work is funded by the DOE NNSA Center of Excellence under cooperative agreement number DE-NA0003869.

The experiment was conducted at the Omega Laser Facility through the NLUF user program. This material is based upon work supported by the DOE [NNSA] U of Rochester “National Inertial Confinement Fusion Program” under Award Number(s) DE-NA0004144.

Work performed under the auspices of the DOE by General Atomics under NNSA Contract 89233124CNA000365