Advances in Understanding the Anomalous Dispersion of Plasmas in the X-Ray Regime

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Advances in Understanding the Anomalous Dispersion of Plasmas in the X-Ray Regime

Nilsen, Joseph / Cheng, K. T. / Johnson, Walter R.

Abstract Over the last several years we have predicted and observed plasmas with an index of refraction greater than one in the soft X-ray regime. These plasmas are usually a few times ionized and have ranged from low-Z carbon plasmas to mid-Z tin plasmas. Our main computational tool has been the average atom code AVATOMKG that enables us to calculate the index of refraction for any plasma at any wavelength. In the last year we have improved this code to take into account many-atomic collisions. This allows the code to converge better at low frequencies. In this paper we present our search for plasmas with strong anomalous dispersion that could be used in X-ray laser interferometer experiments to help understand this phenomena. We discuss the calculations of anomalous dispersion in Na vapor and Ne plasmas near 47 nm where we predict large effects. We also discuss higher Z plasmas such as Ce and Yb plasmas that look very interesting near 47 nm. With the advent of the FLASH X-ray free electron laser in Germany and the LCLS X-FEL coming online at Stanford in another year we use the average atom code to explore plasmas at higher X-ray energy to identify potential experiments for the future. In particular we look near the K shell lines of near solid carbon plasmas and predict strong effects. During the next decade X-ray free electron lasers and other X-ray sources will be available to probe a wider variety of plasmas at higher densities and shorter wavelengths so understanding the index of refraction in plasmas will be even more essential.