X-ray spectroscopy of extreme states of matter created by petawatt-laser-driven nanostructured arrays

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The direct coupling of energy from an optical laser to a near-solid-density plasma is limited due tonegligible penetration depths of light beyond the critical density of a material, making it difficult tocreate homogeneous, dense, high-energy-density systems. However, by tailoring the surfaceproperties of materials at the nanoscale - in particular by producing nano-structured targetscomposed of oriented, anisotropic nano-wires - novel samples can be developed with substantiallydifferent optical properties. Such nano-wires have recently been shown capable of stronglyenhancing the coupling of matter with optical light, yielding absorptions exceeding 95%, and largepenetration depths in metallic samples.This project will focus on investigating the interaction of light with such nano-structured targets, andwill study their behaviour when interacting with large-scale PW laser systems. These systemsshow promise as a new way to access matter in conditions relevant to astrophysical and inertialconfinement fusion research, but also show potential as a novel source of bright laser-driven X-rayand particle beams. A range of experimental diagnostics including X-ray emission spectroscopy willbe employed, and coupled with computational tools based on non-LTE atomic kinetics simulations.This project is part-funded by OxCHEDS and is run in close collaboration with AWE. This projectfalls within the EPSRC research areas of Plasma and lasers, and Light matter interaction andoptical phenomena.