Assessment of transient effects on the x-ray spectroscopy of implosion cores at OMEGA

An assessment of transient effects on the atomic kinetics of argon tracers in inertial confinement fusion implosion cores is carried out. The focus is on typical electron temperature and density conditions achieved in high- and low-adiabat, and shock-ignition implosion experiments performed at the OMEGA laser facility (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, USA). The results show that no significant time-dependent effects are present through the deceleration and burning phases of the implosion, and thus justify the use of steady-state atomic kinetics models in the spectroscopic analysis of sets of time-resolved x-ray spectra recorded with streaked or gated spectrometers. Modeling calculations suggest an onset for time-dependent effects to become important at electron densities ≲10²² cm⁻³. A physical interpretation of these results is given based on the atomic kinetics timescales extracted from the eigenvalue spectrum of the collisional–radiative rate matrix. This study is also relevant for past implosion experiments performed at the GEKKO XII laser (Institute of Laser Engineering, Japan), as well as those currently being performed at the National Ignition Facility (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA). (special issue paper)