ABSTRACT
A high-resolution grazing-incidence grating spectrometer has been implemented on the Livermore electron beam ion traps for performing very high-resolution measurements in the soft x-ray and extreme ultraviolet region spanning from below 10 Å to above 300 Å. The instrument operates without an entrance slit and focuses the light emitted by highly charged ions located in the roughly 50 µm wide electron beam onto a cryogenically cooled back-illuminated charge-coupled device detector. The measured line widths are below 0.025 Å above 100 Å, and the resolving power appears to be limited by the source size and Doppler broadening of the trapped ions. Comparisons with spectra obtained with existing grating spectrometers show an order of magnitude improvement in spectral resolution.
ABSTRACT
High-resolution spectroscopy of the 2s(1/2)-2p(1/2) transition in the extreme ultraviolet region is shown to resolve the level splitting induced by the nuclear magnetic field of both the 2s(1/2) and the 2p(1/2) levels in lithiumlike (141)Pr(56+) and of the 2s(1/2)2p(1/2) (3)P(1) level in berylliumlike (141)Pr(55+). The (141)Pr ions are an ideal test of this measurement approach because their energy levels are known well from first principles and are unaffected by small energy contributions from QED and nuclear magnetization effects. The accuracy attained in the measured 196.5 ± 1.2 meV 2s(1/2) splitting is more than an order of magnitude better than that achieved before using crystal spectroscopy of the 2s(1/2)-2p(3/2) x-ray transition and at the level needed to implement a proposed scheme for disentangling the contributions from QED and nuclear magnetization effects in higher-Z ions, such as (209)Bi.
ABSTRACT
Highly charged iron (Fe(16+), here referred to as Fe XVII) produces some of the brightest X-ray emission lines from hot astrophysical objects, including galaxy clusters and stellar coronae, and it dominates the emission of the Sun at wavelengths near 15 ångströms. The Fe XVII spectrum is, however, poorly fitted by even the best astrophysical models. A particular problem has been that the intensity of the strongest Fe XVII line is generally weaker than predicted. This has affected the interpretation of observations by the Chandra and XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray missions, fuelling a continuing controversy over whether this discrepancy is caused by incomplete modelling of the plasma environment in these objects or by shortcomings in the treatment of the underlying atomic physics. Here we report the results of an experiment in which a target of iron ions was induced to fluoresce by subjecting it to femtosecond X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser; our aim was to isolate a key aspect of the quantum mechanical description of the line emission. Surprisingly, we find a relative oscillator strength that is unexpectedly low, differing by 3.6σ from the best quantum mechanical calculations. Our measurements suggest that the poor agreement is rooted in the quality of the underlying atomic wavefunctions rather than in insufficient modelling of collisional processes.
ABSTRACT
In order to develop plasma diagnostic for reduced-size hot Hohlraums under laser irradiation, we have studied the L-shell emission from highly charged gold ions in the SuperEBIT electron beam ion trap. The resolving power necessary to identify emission features from individual charge states in a picket-fence pattern has been estimated, and the observed radiation features have been compared with atomic structure calculations. We find that the strong 3d(5/2)-->2p(3/2) emission features are particularly useful in determining the charge state distribution and average ion charge Z, which are strongly sensitive to the electron temperature.
ABSTRACT
Measurements of the L -shell emission of highly charged gold ions were made under controlled laboratory conditions using the SuperEBIT electron beam ion trap, allowing detailed spectral observations of lines from Fe-like Au53+ through Ne-like Au69+ . Using atomic data from the Flexible Atomic Code, we have identified strong 3d_{52}-->2p_{32} emission features that can be used to diagnose the charge state distribution in high energy density plasmas, such as those found in the laser entrance hole of hot hohlraum radiation sources. We provide collisional-radiative calculations of the average ion charge Z as a function of temperature and density, which can be used to relate charge state distributions inferred from 3d_{52}-->2p_{32} emission features to plasma conditions, and investigate the effects of plasma density on calculated L -shell Au emission spectra.
ABSTRACT
We present measurements of high statistical significance of the rate of the magnetic octupole (M3 ) decay in nickel-like ions of isotopically pure 129Xe and 132Xe. On 132Xe, an isotope with zero nuclear spin and therefore without hyperfine structure, the lifetime of the metastable level was established as (15.06+/-0.24) ms. On 129Xe, an additional fast (2.7+/-0.1 ms) decay component was established that represents hyperfine mixing with a level that decays by electric quadrupole (E2 ) radiation.
ABSTRACT
Using the SuperEBIT electron beam ion trap, we have measured the 2s(1/2)-2p(1/2) transitions in U88+ and U89+. The measured value of 280.645 +/- 0.015 eV for Li-like U89+ improves the available precision by nearly an order of magnitude and establishes a new benchmark for testing the total QED contribution to the transition energy within a fractional accuracy of 3.6 x 10(-4). We infer a value for the 2s two-loop Lamb shift in U89+ of -0.23 eV, from which we estimate a value of -1.27 eV for the 1s two-loop Lamb shift in U91+.
ABSTRACT
Systematic variation of the electron-beam energy in the EBIT-II electron beam ion trap has been employed to produce soft-x-ray spectra (20-75 A) of Kr with well-defined maximum charge states ranging from Cu- to Al-like ions. Guided by large-scale relativistic atomic structure calculations, the strongest lines have been identified with Delta n=1 (n=3 to n(')=4) transitions from Ni- to P-like ions (Kr(8+)-Kr(21+)), as well as a number of 3p-4d and 3d-5f transitions.
