Characterization of experimental and simulated micrometer-scale soft x-ray-emitting laser plasmas: Toward predictive radiance calculations

Experimentally generated and simulated soft x-ray plasma images and spectra from 1064 nm-driven laser-produced plasmas from slab tin are presented. Produced are small, micrometer-scale emission volumes with principle imaged emission lying between 1.2 and 2.5 nm. Experimental images of the soft x-ray emission of these plasmas are generated using a pinhole imaging system, which enables spatial characterization of the plasmas, and a simple transmission grating spectrometer with a 100 nm pitch grating is used to facilitate the spectral characterization of these plasmas. Plasmas are simulated under similar experimental conditions to those used with the single-fluid, single-temperature radiation-hydrodynamics code RALEF-2D. Coupling the simulation output with optical modeling methods demonstrates its promise as a capability for modeling the spatial and spectral behavior of soft x-ray-emitting tin plasmas at such scales and laser energies.