Experimental tests are in progress to evaluate the accuracy of the modeled iron opacity at solar interior conditions [J.E. Bailey et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 058101 (2009)]. The iron sample is placed on top of the Sandia National Laboratories z-pinch d
ynamic hohlraum (ZPDH) radiation source. The samples are heated to 150 - 200 eV electron temperatures and 7e21 - 4e22 e/cc electron densities by the ZPDH radiation and backlit at its stagnation [T. Nagayama et al., Phys. Plasmas 21, 056502 (2014)]. The backlighter attenuated by the heated sample plasma is measured by four spectrometers along +/- 9 degree with respect to the z-pinch axis to infer the sample iron opacity. Here we describe measurements of the source-to-sample distance that exploit the parallax of spectrometers that view the half-moon-shaped sample from +/-9 degree. The measured sample temperature decreases with increased source-to-sample distance. This distance must be taken into account for understanding the sample heating.
Experimental tests are in progress to evaluate the accuracy of the modeled iron opacity at solar interior conditions, in particular to better constrain the solar abundance problem [S. Basu and H.M. Antia, Physics Reports 457, 217 (2008)]. Here we des
cribe measurements addressing three of the key requirements for reliable opacity experiments: control of sample conditions, independent sample condition diagnostics, and verification of sample condition uniformity. The opacity samples consist of iron/magnesium layers tamped by plastic. By changing the plastic thicknesses, we have controlled the iron plasma conditions to reach i) Te=167+/-3 eV and ne=(7.1+/-1.5)e21 e/cc, ii) Te=170+/-2 eV and ne=(2.0+/-0.2)e22 e/cc, and iii) Te=196+/-6 eV and ne=(3.8+/-0.8)e22 e/cc, which were measured by magnesium tracer K-shell spectroscopy. The opacity sample non-uniformity was directly measured by a separate experiment where Al is mixed into the side of the sample facing the radiation source and Mg into the other side. The iron condition was confirmed to be uniform within their measurement uncertainties by Al and Mg K-shell spectroscopy. The conditions are suitable for testing opacity calculations needed for modeling the solar interior, other stars, and high energy density plasmas.
