The sensitivity of lithium plasma models to the underlying atomic data is investigated. Collisional-radiative modeling is carried out with both the Los Alamos and ADAS suite of codes. The effects of plane-wave Born, distorted-wave, and nonperturbative $R$-matrix with pseudostates and time-dependent close-coupling electron impact atomic data on derived plasma quantities such as the ionization balance and radiated power are studied. Density and temperature regimes are identified where nonperturbative excitation and ionization rate coefficients must be used. The electron temperature and density ranges investigated were $0.2\text{eV}⩽T_e⩽90\text{eV}$ and ${10}^{10}{\text{cm}}^{-3}⩽N_e⩽{10}^{14}{\text{cm}}^{-3}$.

• Received 1 December 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.69.066405