Evidence for phonon hardening in laser-excited gold using x-ray diffraction at a hard x-ray free electron laser.

Studies of laser-heated materials on femtosecond timescales have shown that the interatomic potential can be perturbed at sufficiently high laser intensities. For gold, it has been postulated to undergo a strong stiffening leading to an increase of the phonon energies, known as phonon hardening. Despite efforts to investigate this behavior, only measurements at low absorbed energy density have been performed, for which the interpretation of the experimental data remains ambiguous. By using in situ single-shot x-ray diffraction at a hard x-ray free-electron laser, the evolution of diffraction line intensities of laser-excited Au to a higher energy density provides evidence for phonon hardening.

Dynamics of femtosecond heated warm dense copper with time-resolved L3-edge XANES.

Combining experimental set up and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we were able to follow the time evolution of the X-ray absorption near edge spectrum (XANES) of a dense copper plasma. This provides a deep insight into femtosecond laser interaction with a metallic copper target. This paper presents a review of the experimental developments we made to reduce the X-ray probe duration, from approximately 10 ps to fs duration with table-top laser systems. Moreover, we present microscopic scale simulations, performed with Density Functional Theory, as well as macroscopic simulations considering the Two-Temperature Model. These tools allow us to get a complete picture of the evolution of the target at a microscopic level, from the heating process to the melting and expansion stages, with a clear view of the physics involved during these processes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Dynamic and transient processes in warm dense matter'.

Plastic ablator and hydrodynamic instabilities: a first-principles set of microscopic coefficients.

We have performed orbital-free and quantum molecular dynamics simulations on plastic ablator along two isochores, namely 7 and 9 g cm(-3), from 5 to 40 eV. These thermodynamic conditions correspond to those encountered during inertial confinement fusion capsule implosion when hydrodynamic instabilities can take place. The coupling between orbital-free and quantum approaches allowed us to compute an exhaustive set of microscopic coefficients, i.e., equation-of-state, ionic diffusion coefficients, thermal and electrical conductivities, spanning phenomena that can mitigate the growth of classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Comparisons to widely used models in hydrodynamics codes are developed.

Ab initio determination of thermal conductivity of dense hydrogen plasmas.

Ab initio molecular dynamics is used to compute the thermal conductivity of hydrogen at 80 g cm(-3) and temperature up to 800 eV. Pressures and ionic structure are compared with orbital-free calculations. Thermal conductivity is evaluated using the Kubo-Greenwood formula and is compared with models currently used in hydrodynamical simulations of inertial confinement fusion.

Electrical conductivity of hot expanded aluminum: experimental measurements and ab initio calculations.

Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations of the electrical conductivity of aluminum are presented in the strongly coupled partially degenerate regime (rho=0.3 g/cm(3), 5000