K-shell X-ray spectroscopy of laser produced aluminum plasma

Optimization of a laser produced plasma (LPP) X-ray source has been performed by analyzing K-shell emission spectra of Al plasma at a laser intensity of 10(13)-10(14) W/cm(2). The effect of varying the laser intensity on the emissivity of the K-shell resonance lines is studied and found to follow a power law, I-x = (I-L)(alpha) with alpha=2.2, 2.3, 2.4 for He-beta, He-gamma, He-delta respectively. The emission of these resonance lines has been found to be heavily anisotropic. A Python language based code has been developed to generate an intensity profile of K-shell spectral lines from the raw data. In theoretical calculations, the temperature is estimated by taking the ratio of the Li-like satellite (1s(2)2p-1s2p3p) and the He-beta (1s2-1s3p) resonance line and the ratio of the He-like satellite (1s2p-2p(2)) and the Ly(alpha) (1s-2p) resonance line. To determine the plasma density, stark broadening of the Ly(beta) spectral line is used. Simulation was carried out using the FLYCHK code to generate a synthetic emission spectrum. The results obtained by FLYCHK are T-e=160 eV, T-h=1 keV, f= 0.008, n(e)= 5 x 10(20) cm(-3) and the analytical model resulted T-e=260-419 eV and n(e)=3x10(20)cm(-3). (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.