Short-pulse laser opacity measurements

Short-pulse laser heating offers the opportunity of creating plasmas of ver y high energy density in the laboratory. Measurements of the radiative prop erties of such plasmas are now starting to be performed. Some attempt has b een made to reduce the spatial gradients of temperature and density by usin g buried layer targets. We show in this paper that through extensive comput ational design work, it is possible to make further reductions in such grad ients, thereby significantly increasing the value of such experiments in ch ecking theoretical models of the radiative opacity. (C) 2000 Published by E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.