Quick Shot

As a part of the Optical Depth experimental series conducted at the Omega Laser Facility, researchers from LLE, Oxford University in England, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel have, for the first time, isolated the effects of a plasma’s geometry on its x-ray emission spectrum in a controlled laboratory setting. This effort has also provided for the testing of several resonant-scattering theories. Resonant scattering is a phenomenon found in plasmas of sufficient size and density where emitted photons have a high probability of being absorbed and remitted many times. This research has been published in Physical Review Letters which was led by graduate student Gabriel Pérez-Callejo and associates at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The experiments will provide a new understanding of anomalous astrophysical data and diagnosing the conditions of inertial confinement fusion implosions. Read more about this project on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website.