Thomson scattering from high-Z laser-produced plasmas

We present the first simultaneous observations of ion acoustic and electron plasma waves in laser-produced dense plasmas with Thomson scattering. In a ddition to measuring the standard plasma parameters, electron temperature a nd density, this novel experimental technique is shown to be a sensitive me thod for temporally and spatially resolved measurements of the averaged ion ization stage of the plasma. Experiments with highly ionized gold plasmas c learly show that the inclusion of dielectronic recombination in radiation-h ydrodynamic modeling is critically important to model cooling plasmas. [S00 31-9007(98)08073-9].