An experiment to measure the electron-ion thermal equilibration rate in a strongly coupled plasma

Summary form only given, as follows. As part of the stockpile stewardship program, we are developing the capability to produce strongly coupled plasmas at high density and modest temperature. In the conditions of strong coupling, where the particle thermal energy is less than the average inter-particle electrostatic energy, many of the fundamental plasma properties, like equations-of-state and thermal equilibration rates, are not well understood. A new experiment at Los Alamos has recently been funded to measure the electron-ion thermal equilibration rate in a strongly coupled plasma. There is the possibility that this rate is modified from that given by the usual weakly coupled model (Landau/Spitzer) by coupled collective modes. To make this measurement, a neon gas volume will be heated with a short pulse laser to give warm electrons, of order 100 eV, and cold ions, of order 5 eV. Several diagnostics will then be used to observe the time dependent equilibration of the electron and ion temperatures.