This book provides a compact yet comprehensive overview of recent developments in collisional-radiative (CR) modeling of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. It describes advances across the entire field, from basic considerations of model completeness to validation and verification of CR models to calculation of plasma kinetic characteristics and spectra in diverse plasmas. Various approaches to CR modeling are presented, together with numerous examples of applications. A number of important topics, such as atomic models for CR modeling, atomic data and its availability and quality, radiation transport, non-Maxwellian effects on plasma emission, ionization potential lowering, and verification and validation of CR models, are thoroughly addressed. Strong emphasis is placed on the most recent developments in the field, such as XFEL spectroscopy. Written by leading international research scientists from a number of key laboratories, the book offers a timely summary of the most recent progress in this area. It will be a useful and practical guide for students and experienced researchers working in plasma spectroscopy, spectra simulations, and related fields.

Plasmas comprise more than 99% of the observable universe. They are important in many technologies and are key potential sources for fusion power. Atomic and radiation physics is critical for the diagnosis, observation and simulation of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas, and plasma physicists working in a range of areas from astrophysics, magnetic fusion, and inertial fusion utilise atomic and radiation physics to interpret measurements. This text develops the physics of emission, absorption and interaction of light in astrophysics and in laboratory plasmas from first principles using the physics of various fields of study including quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and statistical physics. Linking undergraduate level atomic and radiation physics with the advanced material required for postgraduate study and research, this text adopts a highly pedagogical approach and includes numerous exercises within each chapter for students to reinforce their understanding of the key concepts.

Comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic molecular and optical (AMO) physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field. 92 chapters written by about 120 authors present the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field, together with a guide to the primary research literature (carefully edited to ensure a uniform coverage and style, with extensive cross-references). Along with a summary of key ideas, techniques, and results, many chapters offer diagrams of apparatus, graphs, and tables of data. From atomic spectroscopy to applications in comets, one finds contributions from over 100 authors, all leaders in their respective disciplines. Substantially updated and expanded since the original 1996 edition, it now contains several entirely new chapters covering current areas of great research interest that barely existed in 1996, such as Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum information, and cosmological variations of the fundamental constants. A fully-searchable CD- ROM version of the contents accompanies the handbook.

The book is a comprehensive edition which considers the interactions of atoms, ions and molecules with charged particles, photons and laser fields and reflects the present understanding of atomic processes such as electron capture, target and projectile ionisation, photoabsorption and others occurring in most of laboratory and astrophysical plasma sources including many-photon and many-electron processes. The material consists of selected papers written by leading scientists in various fields.

In spite of its high cost and technical importance, plasma equipment is still largely designed empirically, with little help from computer simulation. Plasma process control is rudimentary. Optimization of plasma reactor operation, including adjustments to deal with increasingly stringent controls on plant emissions, is performed predominantly by trial and error. There is now a strong and growing economic incentive to improve on the traditional methods of plasma reactor and process design, optimization, and control. An obvious strategy for both chip manufacturers and plasma equipment suppliers is to employ large-scale modeling and simulation. The major roadblock to further development of this promising strategy is the lack of a database for the many physical and chemical processes that occur in the plasma. The data that are currently available are often scattered throughout the scientific literature, and assessments of their reliability are usually unavailable. "Database Needs for Modeling and Simulation of Plasma Processing" identifies strategies to add data to the existing database, to improve access to the database, and to assess the reliability of the available data. In addition to identifying the most important needs, this report assesses the experimental and theoretical/computational techniques that can be used, or must be developed, in order to begin to satisfy these needs.