Scientists make aluminum nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation

Scientists at Oxford University used the world's most powerful soft X-ray laser to "bombard" metal aluminum. They removed a core electron from each aluminum atom without destroying the metal's crystal structure, making the metal nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation. Professor Justin Wark of the Department of Physics at Oxford University said that they had created a new state of matter never seen before. He pointed out that the physical properties of the substance they had created were quite close to those created under the environmental conditions inside planets. It will help understand the evolution of the "miniature stars" created by high-energy laser implosion, thus taking a solid step towards controlled nuclear fusion.