Beschreibung:
<jats:p>Strictly speaking, temperature is uniquely defined only in plasmas which are in complete thermodynamic equilibrium. In typical laser-produced plasmas, measurement of electron temperature amounts to a parametrization of some part of the distribution of electron energies, typically inferred from the recombination continuum, or from the ratio of spectral lines that are implicitly dependent on the electron distribution. Where the plasma is highly transient, suffers appreciable opacity, or is subject to a background radiation field, the interpretation of temperature from disparate spectral lines can become untrustworthy. For these complicated plasmas, a conceptually simpler spectral line diagnostic offers great advantages. A technique has been introduced that begins with plasmas that include two elements of similar atomic number, in a known ratio, and compares isoelectronic lines from ions that differ only in their nuclear charge Z, and thus in their ionization potentials χi. Since these two have different values of the same dimensionless parameter Te/χi, the ratio of intensities of isoelectronic lines can be interpreted to determine the temperature Te. The technique and its areas of advantage are described, the applications made to the special problems of laboratories elsewhere are summarized, and this particular progress in application to laser plasmas produced by high-intensity picosecond pulses are reported here.</jats:p>