Changes in the electronic structure of highly compressed iron revealed by X-ray fluorescence lines and absorption edges

We present high-resolution spectroscopic data from iron impurities in beryllium liners driven by Sandia's Z machine to temperatures near 10 eV and electron densities near 2 × 1024 cm−3, conditions independently diagnosed from the transmission depth and shape of the iron K-edge. A 12-eV redshift is observed in the Fe Kβ fluorescence line along with few-eV shifts in the Fe Kα lines and Fe K-shell absorption edge. While the measured edge shift disagrees with several common models of ionization potential depression, both line and edge shifts are in good agreement with the predictions of a self-consistent model based on density functional theory.