Plasmons in strongly coupled shock-compressed matter

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Aug 13;105(7):075003. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.075003. Epub 2010 Aug 12.

Abstract

We present the first measurements of the plasmon dispersion and damping in laser shock-compressed solid matter. Petawatt laser produced K-α radiation scatters on boron targets compressed by a 10 ns-long 400 J laser pulse. In the vicinity of the Fermi momentum, the scattering spectra show dispersionless, collisionally damped plasmons, indicating a strongly coupled electron liquid. These observations agree with calculations that include the Born-Mermin approximation to account for electron-ion collisional damping and local field corrections reflecting electron-electron correlations.