Photoionized gas jet experiments at the 1 MA Zebra pulsed-power driver relevant to astrophysics

The photoionized supersonic gas jet platform developed on the 1 MA Zebra accelerator provides the first method for university-scale laboratory photoionized plasma studies with astrophysical relevance. A millimeter scale cylindrical volume of gas is irradiated with an intense broadband x-ray flux produced by the implosion of a wire-array z-pinch, which heats and backlights the plasma. The photoionized gas jet platform employs laser and x-ray diagnostics, which provide measurements of atomic and electron densities as well as charge state distribution (CSD). These measurements are used to inform, constrain, and test theory models. Radial atomic density profiles of the neutral gas jet and the characterized spectral distribution of the x-ray radiation drive are used to initialize 1D radiation hydrodynamic simulations of the experiment. Simulation results are compared with electron density maps extracted from dual color air-wedge shearing laser interferometry, and synthetic transmission spectra and CSD are tested against measurements obtained with a crystal spectrometer.