Turning solid aluminium transparent by intense soft X-ray photoionization

Saturable absorption is a phenomenon readily seen in the optical and infrared wavelengths. It has never been observed in core-electron transitions owing to the short lifetime of the excited states involved and the high intensities of the soft X-rays needed. We report saturable absorption of an L-she...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Nature physics Vol. 5; no. 9; pp. 693 - 696
Main Authors:	Nagler, Bob, Zastrau, Ulf, Fäustlin, Roland R, Vinko, Sam M, Whitcher, Thomas, Nelson, A J, Sobierajski, Ryszard, Krzywinski, Jacek, Chalupsky, Jaromir, Abreu, Elsa, Bajt, Sasa, Bornath, Thomas, Burian, Tomas, Chapman, Henry, Cihelka, Jaroslav, Döppner, Tilo, Düsterer, Stefan, Dzelzainis, Thomas, Fajardo, Marta, ster, Eckhart, tmann, Carsten, Galtier, Eric, Glenzer, Siegfried H, Göde, Sebastian, Gregori, Gianluca, Hajkova, Vera, Heimann, Phil, Juha, Libor, Jurek, Marek, Khattak, Fida Y, Khorsand, Ali Reza, Klinger, Dorota, Kozlova, Michaela, Laarmann, Tim, Lee, Hae Ja, Lee, Richard W, Meiwes-broer, Karl-heinz, Mercere, Pascal, Murphy, William J, Przystawik, Andreas, Redmer, Ronald, Reinholz, Heidi, Riley, David, Röpke, Gerd, Rosmej, Frank, Saksl, Karel, Schott, Romain, Thiele, Robert, Tiggesbäumker, Josef, Toleikis, Sven, Tschentscher, Thomas, Uschmann, Ingo, Vollmer, Hubert J, Wark, Justin S
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-09-2009 Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:	Absorption Aluminum Atomic Atoms & subatomic particles Classical and Continuum Physics Complex Systems Condensed Matter Physics Decay Mathematical and Computational Physics Molecular Optical and Plasma Physics Optics Physics Physics and Astronomy Theoretical Wavelengths X-rays
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Saturable absorption is a phenomenon readily seen in the optical and infrared wavelengths. It has never been observed in core-electron transitions owing to the short lifetime of the excited states involved and the high intensities of the soft X-rays needed. We report saturable absorption of an L-shell transition in aluminium using record intensities over 10 16 W cm −2 at a photon energy of 92 eV. From a consideration of the relevant timescales, we infer that immediately after the X-rays have passed, the sample is in an exotic state where all of the aluminium atoms have an L-shell hole, and the valence band has approximately a 9 eV temperature, whereas the atoms are still on their crystallographic positions. Subsequently, Auger decay heats the material to the warm dense matter regime, at around 25 eV temperatures. The method is an ideal candidate to study homogeneous warm dense matter, highly relevant to planetary science, astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion. The first experimental demonstration of saturable absorption in core-electron transitions in aluminium paves the way for investigating warm dense matter, which potentially has an important role in planetary science and the realization of inertial confinement fusion.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	1745-2473 1745-2481
DOI:	10.1038/nphys1341