Non-LTE Modeling of Molybdenum L-Shell Radiation Produced Using the Nike Laser

The Nike KrF laser facility can deliver a few kJ of UV light $( \lambda =248\ \text{nm})$ to a target. This is sufficient to ionize a solid high-atomic-number target, such as molybdenum, producing HED plasma. The emitted molybdenum L-shell x-rays were measured using a high resolution spectrometer with a mica crystal (2d = l 19.84 Å). The recorded spectral lines can be used to identify the ion charge states (F-, Ne-, and Na-like) present and non-LTE modeling can be used to diagnose the temperature and density of the plasma. A 1-D non-LTE collisional-radiative kinetic model that solves the radiation transport equation frequency-by-frequency was used to produce a synthetic spectrum to match the recorded experimental spectrum. We report diagnostically useful emission lines that characterize the molybdenum L-shell plasma.