On the reliability of temperature estimation from bremsstrahlung emissions for a high-Z, laser-produced plasma

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Abstract
Relative contributions of recombination, bremsstrahlung and line emissions from an aluminium plasma produced by a laser have been calculated using a steady-state corona model for the ionisation state. Intensity ratios, through aluminised polycarbonate foils of different thicknesses, have been calculated to estimate the electron temperature of the plasma at temperatures of 50 eV-5 keV. Except at very high temperatures in the keV regime, the contribution due to bremsstrahlung can be very well ignored and the X-ray emission can be taken as pure recombination. Contribution due to line emission was found to be negligible at all temperatures, in the given spectral region, even through one thin foil. It was found to be erroneous to estimate the electron temperature from bremsstrahlung emissions even when a choice of transmission bands, away from and between the recombination edges, is made according to the existing methods.
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