Momentum-Resolved X-Ray Thomson Scattering Benchmark of Electronic-Response Models in Warm Dense Aluminium

Physical Review Letters 2026 Open access

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Authors: Dmitrii S. Bespalov, U. Zastrau, Zhandos A. Moldabekov, Thomas Gawne, Tobias Dornheim, Moyassar Meshhal, Alexis Amouretti, Michał Andrzejewski, Karen Appel, Carsten Baehtz, E. Brambrink, Khachiwan Buakor
+49 more Carolina Camarda, David A. Chin, G. W. Collins, Céline Crépisson, Adrien Descamps, J. H. Eggert, L. B. Fletcher, Alessandro Forte, G. Gregori, M. Harmand, Oliver Humphries, Hauke Höppner, Jonas Kuhlke, William Lynn, J. Lütgert, M. Masruri, E. E. McBride, R. S. McWilliams, A. Mora, Jean-Paul Naedler, Paul Neumayer, C. A. J. Palmer, A. Pełka, Lea Pennacchioni, Calum Prestwood, Natalia Pukhareva, Chongbing Qu, Divyanshu Ranjan, R. Redmer, Michael Roper, Christoph J. Sahle, Samuel G. Schumacher, Jan‐Patrick Schwinkendorf, Melanie J. Sieber, Madison Singleton, Ethan Smith, Christian Sternemann, Thomas H. Stevens, Michael R. Stevenson, C. Strohm, Minxue Tang, M. Toncian, T. Toncian, T. Tschentscher, S. M. Vinko, J. S. Wark, Max Wilke, D. Kraus, Thomas R. Preston
DOI: 10.1103/86cw-8wm5
Cited by: 2
References: 46

Abstract

The robust diagnosis of conditions generated in warm dense matter experiments remains a persistent challenge. Here, we describe the measurement of shock-compressed aluminium at 50 GPa with angle-resolved femtosecond x-ray Thomson scattering (XRTS) over a wide range of scattering wave vectors at the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser. The measured plasmon dispersion and line shape show that the de facto standard approach for analyzing XRTS spectra, using uniform-electron-gas models, systematically overestimates the resonance energy by up to 8 eV. We present an approach using ab initio methods that agrees within the experimental uncertainty and demonstrates how accounting for shock-induced disorder in shock-compressed systems is critical for their understanding, providing evidence that ab initio treatments are required for reliable XRTS inference in warm dense aluminium.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Advanced Chemical Physics Studies Spectroscopy and Laser Applications Quantum superfluid helium dynamics

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Volume
136
Issue
24
Pages
245102–245102
Publication date
1 May 2026
Language
EN