Equilibration dynamics and conductivity of warm dense hydrogen

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jul;90(1):013104. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.90.013104. Epub 2014 Jul 18.

Abstract

We investigate subpicosecond dynamics of warm dense hydrogen at the XUV free-electron laser facility (FLASH) at DESY (Hamburg). Ultrafast impulsive electron heating is initiated by a ≤ 300-fs short x-ray burst of 92-eV photon energy. A second pulse probes the sample via x-ray scattering at jitter-free variable time delay. We show that the initial molecular structure dissociates within (0.9 ± 0.2) ps, allowing us to infer the energy transfer rate between electrons and ions. We evaluate Saha and Thomas-Fermi ionization models in radiation hydrodynamics simulations, predicting plasma parameters that are subsequently used to calculate the static structure factor. A conductivity model for partially ionized plasma is validated by two-temperature density-functional theory coupled to molecular dynamic simulations and agrees with the experimental data. Our results provide important insights and the needed experimental data on transport properties of dense plasmas.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Electric Conductivity*
  • Electrons*
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Hydrogen / chemistry*
  • Lasers
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Quantum Theory
  • Temperature*
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Hydrogen