Plasmas with solid-state density at temperatures of a few eV will be produced in the near future at GSI by high-energy heavy ions. To diagnose these plasmas, novel methods–based on hard X-ray diagnostics–have to be applied. An investigation of the hydrodynamic expansion of the target requires a space- and time-resolved measurement of the plasma density. The determination of the target density independently of its temperature is obtained by a special X-ray pinhole camera enabling a selective registration of the target K-shell emission in combination with space- and time-resolved beam intensity measurements.
Space and time resolved spectroscopy of laser-produced plasmas: A study of density-sensitive x-ray transitions in helium-like and neon-like ions