MUTA calculations of a laser-produced Mg hollow atom spectrum

A study is made of the spectra produced from a short-wavelength long-pulse (nanosecond) laser incident on a Mg plasma. A very complex experimental spectrum is analyzed in detail by comparison with large-scale atomic kinetics calculations using the recently developed mixed-UTA (MUTA) model. We find that the experimental spectrum appears to contain lines from many inner-shell transitions from ions ranging from neutral Mg to Li-like Mg. Lines from transitions such as 1s–3l, 1s–4l, and from hollow atoms (where in this context hollow atoms refer to ions with an empty 1s shell) are observed. The inclusion of very small fractions of hot electrons is demonstrated to make significant differences to the spectra. Although it is found that the calculations do not match perfectly the experimental spectra, reasonable agreement between the experiment and the theory can be obtained if temperature and density gradients are assumed present in the experimental conditions.