Workshop: Plasma Photonics, Metamaterials, Strongly Coupled Plasmas

We have developed an experiment platform to generate high-density strongly coupled (SC) plasma states [1,2], relevant to the interior of our Sun and other celestial objects. A focused ns laser pulse of moderate energy (100s mJ) in supercritical fluids of noble species (He, Ar, Kr, and Xe) generates a SC plasma with a relatively low temperature of ~ 1 eV (estimated by blackbody fitting) and a surprisingly high density exceeding ~10²¹ cm^-3. We invoke an ionization potential reduction mechanism to explain such a high density [3] and discuss about weakly degenerate nature of the plasma and a possibility of photonic structure formation therein.

[1] Lee S., et al., Nature Commun.12 (2021) 4630. 

[2] Lee S., et al., Plasma Phys. Contrl. Fusion 64 (2022) 095010.

[3] Lee J., et al., under review.

Funding acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Grant No. RS-2024-00349684) and partially supported under Glocal 30 University project funded by Ministry of Education.