The first data from the Orion laser: measurements of the spectrum of hot dense aluminium

The newly commissioned Orion laser system has been used to study dense plasmas created by a combination of short pulse laser heating and compression by laser driven shocks. Thus the plasma density was systematically varied between 1 and 10g cc by using aluminium samples buried in plastic foils or diamond sheets. The aluminium was heated to electron temperatures between 500eV and 700eV allowing the plasma conditions to be diagnosed by K- shell emission spectroscopy. The K-shell spectra show the effect of the ionization potential depression as a function of density via the delocalization of n=3 levels and disappearance of n=3 transitions in He-like and H-like aluminium. The data are compared to simulated spectra, which account for the change in the ionization potential by the commonly used Stewart and Pyatt prescription; a simple ion sphere model and an alternative due to Ecker and Kroll suggested by recent X-ray free-electron laser experiments. The experimental data are in reasonable agreement with the model of Stewart and Pyatt, but are in better agreement with a simple ion sphere model. The data indicate that the Ecker and Kröll model overestimates substantially the ionization potential depression in this regime.