Spectral line formation in dense large-gradient plasma

The positions and profiles of x-ray spectral lines emitted from well characterized laserproduced plasmas have been investigated. The red shifts observed for higher members of the aluminum Lyman series are consistent with theoretical predictions of the line shifts in hot dense plasmas. The experimentally observed profiles of Al XIII Ly_a line are interpreted by modeling the radiative transport through plasma with large transverse gradients. The presented results originated from collaborative effort of the research groups from the Institute of Physics, Prague, University of Jena and University of Oxford. This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under Grant No. 202/97/1186.