Thomson scattering from high-Z laser-produced plasmas

We present the first simultaneous observations of ion acoustic and electron plasma waves in laser-produced dense plasmas with Thomson scattering. In addition to measuring the standard plasma parameters, electron temperature and density, this novel experimental technique is shown to be a sensitive method for temporally and spatially resolved measurements of the averaged ionization stage of the plasma. Experiments with highly ionized gold plasmas clearly show that the inclusion of dielectronic recombination in radiation-hydrodynamic modeling is critically important to model cooling plasmas. [S0031-9007(98)08073-9].