OPACITY OF DENSE, COLD, AND STRONGLY COUPLED PLASMAS

The physics of dense [(1-5) x 10(19) cm(-3)],cold (1-15 eV), strongly coupled (Gamma similar to 0.7) plasmas is probed with 0.351, 0.527, an d 1.054 mu m opacity measurements in well characterized, laser-heated, aluminum plasmas. Current opacity models are tested, for the first ti me, in the regime where the probing photon energies are of the same or der as the average interparticle interaction energies in the plasma. P redicted enhancements of the opacity at low temperatures are not obser ved, but overall agreement between experiment and theory is within a f actor of 2.