학술논문

X-ray Thomson scattering spectra from DFT-MD simulations based on a modified Chihara formula
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Subject
Physics - Plasma Physics
Language
Abstract
We study state-of-the-art approaches for calculating x-ray Thomson scattering spectra from density functional theory molecular dynamics (DFT-MD) simulations based on a modified Chihara formula that expresses the inelastic contribution in terms of the dielectric function. We compare the electronic dynamic structure factor computed from the Mermin dielectric function using an ab initio electron-ion collision frequency to computations using a linear response time dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) framework for hydrogen and beryllium and investigate the dispersion of free-free and bound-free contributions to the scattering signal. A separate treatment of these contributions in the Mermin dielectric function shows excellent agreement with LR-TDDFT results for ambient-density beryllium, but breaks down for highly compressed matter where the bound states become pressure ionized. LR-TDDFT is used to reanalyze x-ray Thomson scattering experiments on beryllium demonstrating strong deviations from the plasma conditions inferred with traditional analytic models at small scattering angles.
Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Physical Review E