Sam Vinko

TL;DR: The experimental creation of a solid-density plasma at temperatures in excess of 106 kelvin on inertial-confinement timescales using an X-ray free-electron laser is reported and insights are obtained into the evolution of the charge state distribution of the system, the electron density and temperature, and the timescale of collisional processes.

TL;DR: The results are found to disagree with the predictions of the extensively used Stewart-Pyatt model, but are consistent with the earlier model of Ecker and Kröll, which predicts significantly greater depression of the ionization potential.

TL;DR: This review is focused on free-electron lasers (FELs) in the hard to soft x-ray regime and provides newcomers to the area with insights into: the basic physics of FELs, the qualities of the radiation they produce, the challenges of transmitting that radiation to end users and the diversity of current scientific applications.

TL;DR: The standard density-dependent analytical models are shown to be inadequate to describe solid-density plasmas at the temperatures studied, where the reduction of the binding energies for a given species is unaffected by the different plasma environment in either the element or compounds of that species.

TL;DR: It is found that the continuum lowering for ions in dense plasmas at intermediate temperatures is larger than predicted by standard plasma models and this effect is explained through the electronic structure of the valence states in these strong-coupling conditions.