Frances Kraus

Dr. Frances Kraus is a plasma physicist and x-ray spectroscopist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. She has a bachelors from University of Alabama (2014) and a PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University (2021). Her graduate research culminated in a Cycle 1 LaserNetUS campaign to study x-ray emission from hot dense plasmas at the ALEPH facility at Colorado State University. Since then, Frances has been running and participating in LaserNetUS campaigns on ultrafast time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy, fast proton generation, and spectroscopy of warm-dense matter. She is particularly interested in “big data” analysis techniques with applications to laser facilities with high shot repetition rates. Aside from participating in the LaserNetUS Data and Diagnostics Committee, Frances cares deeply about engaging the publics in physics, and is therefore a regular PPPL tour guide, an occasional radio host and an elected chair of the American Physical Society’s Forum on Outreach and Engagement of the Public.

LaserNetUS Affiliations:

• Member, LaserNetUS Data and Diagnostics Committee

Featured Publications:

1. Ablating Ion Velocity Distributions in Short-Pulse-Heated Solids via X-ray Doppler Shifts
B. F. Kraus, et al., Physical Review Letters, 129, 235001 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.235001 

2. Streaked sub-ps-resolution x-ray line shapes and implications for solid-density plasma dynamics (invited)
B. F. Kraus, et al., Review of Scientific Instruments, 93, 103527 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0101853 

3. Hot Spot Evolution Measured by High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy at the National Ignition Facility
L. Gao, et al., Physical Review Letters, 128, 185002 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.185002

4. Solid-density Ion Temperature from Redshifted and Double-peaked Stark Line Shapes
B. F. Kraus, et al., Physical Review Letters, 127, 205001 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.205001