Ion-beam deposition, heating, and radiation from an aluminum plasma

Energy transport and photon emission in a thin Al foil bombarded by an energetic proton beam is theoretically investigated with use of a one-dimensional numerical model which self-consistently treats energy deposition by the beam, the hydrodynamic response and ionization dynamics of the target, and the detailed radiation emission and transport. An extensive atomic-level structure with collisional-radiative-equilibrium (CRE) ionization dynamics is employed in conjunction with a hybrid radiation transport scheme consisting of a multifrequency ray tracing formalism for continuum transport and a probabilistic treatment for line transport. The interaction of a 1-MeV-proton beam with a flux of 10²⁶ protons/cm² sec on a 15-μm-thick Al slab is investigated. It is found that half or more of the incident energy can be converted to radiation, suggesting that radiation can play a dominant role in the subsequent plasma evolution. Temperature and density profiles, energy histories, emission spectra, and other results are presented.