MEASUREMENT OF THE POLARIZATION SHIFTS IN HOT AND DENSE ALUMINUM PLASMA

The profiles and positions of the aluminum Lyman series members alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta and eta emitted from a laser-genera ted. constrained-flow plasma were measured using a vertical-dispersion x-ray spectrometer. The shifts of the spatially-resolved emission pro files were identified and correlated with the plasma densities inferre d from numerical simulation of the experiment. The red shifts observed for transitions gamma - eta are consistent with theoretical predictio ns of the line shifts in hot dense plasmas; This is the first comprehe nsive measurement of the behavior of this effect as a function of plas ma density and the principal quantum number of the initial state. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.