ABSTRACT
High-explosive driven generators of cylindrical and plane shock waves in D2 and H2 were used for the generation of warm and dense strongly nonideal matter with an intense interparticle interaction and Fermi statistics. Highly resolved flash x-ray diagnostics were used to measure the adiabatic plasma compressibility. The thermodynamic measurements demonstrated the 20% increase of density at megabar pressure, just in the density range, where the electrical measurements indicated a sharp--5 orders of magnitude--increase of electrical conductivity due to pressure ionization in strongly coupled plasmas.
ABSTRACT
High-energy heavy ions are an ideal tool to generate homogeneously excited, extended volumes of nonthermal plasmas. Here, the high-energy loss (dE/dx) and absolute power deposition of heavy ions interacting with matter has been used to pump an ultraviolet laser. A pulsed 70 MeV/u 238U beam with up to 2.5 x 10(9) particles in approximately 100 ns beam bunches was stopped in a 1.2 m long laser cell filled with a 1.6 bar Ar-Kr-F2 mixture (typically 50%:49.9%:0.1%). Laser effect on the 248 nm KrF* excimer transition is clearly demonstrated.
