Investigation of High Energy Density Plasmas Using the Collisional-Radiative Model

Abstract

High energy density (HED) plasmas are the state of matter at extremely high pressures and temperatures, are of great interest that spans over various branches of basic and applied science. A collisional radiative (CR) model, one of the successful ways to study material structures and transport properties in HED plasmas, calculates atomic level population distributions in plasmas and provides a vital understanding of the properties of HED plasmas. This thesis introduces a class of generalized CR models based on screened-hydrogenic atomic levels and rates and its wide variety of applications. It includes: 1. The interpretation of the non-linear optical process of HED plasmas. 2. Generation of opacities in the wide range of temperature and density. 3. The improvement of the code to describe non-equilibrium electron dynamics. 4. Its application on analysis of the collisional ionization rate for HED plasmas. Conclusively, this work has demonstrated the reliable performance of these CR models on the HED plasma research.