2/22/2010 Colloquium - Andrea Kritcher
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Andrea KritcherLawrence Livermore National Laboratory |
Event Info
Title: K-alpha x-ray Thomson scattering from warm dense matter
Date: Feb 22, 2010
Location: 3105 Etcheverry Hall
Time: 4-5pm
Abstract
Spectrally resolved scattering of ultra-short pulse laser-generated K-alpha x rays has been applied to measure the heating and compression of shocked solid-density lithium hydride. Two shocks launched by a nanosecond laser pulse coalesce yielding pressures of 400 gigapascals. The evolution of the intensity of the elastic (Rayleigh) scattering component indicates rapid heating to temperatures of 25,000K and shift of the plasmon frequency yields electron densities of 1.7x10^23/cc at shock coalescence. The plasmon frequency and shape determines the material compression, which is found to be a factor of three thereby reaching conditions in the laboratory important for studying astrophysics phenomena and for probing Inertial Confinement Fusion type targets.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Andrea Kritcher is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory working on the development and
application of x-ray scattering to probe warm dense matter and on NIF
basic science experiments. She received her PhD. and M.S. in Nuclear
Engineering from the University of California Berkeley in 2009 and her
B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the
University of Michigan. Her research interests include experimental
high-energy-density-plasma and nuclear Physics and Inertial
Confinement Fusion (ICF).
