A next-generation neutron temporal diagnostic (NTD) capable of recording high-quality data for the highest anticipated yield cryogenic deuterium-tritium (DT) implosion experiments was recently installed at the Omega Laser Facility. A high-quality measurement of the neutron production width is required to determine the hot-spot pressure achieved in inertial confinement fusion experiments-a key metric in assessing the quality of these implosions. The design of this NTD is based on a fast-rise-time plastic scintillator, which converts the neutron kinetic energy to 350- to 450-nm-wavelength light. The light from the scintillator inside the nose-cone assembly is relayed ∼16 m to a streak camera in a well-shielded location. An ∼200× reduction in neutron background was observed during the first high-yield DT cryogenic implosions compared to the current NTD installation on OMEGA. An impulse response of ∼40 ± 10 ps was measured in a dedicated experiment using hard x-rays from a planar target irradiated with a 10-ps short pulse from the OMEGA EP laser. The measured instrument response includes contributions from the scintillator rise time, optical relay, and streak camera.

A high-resolving-power x-ray spectrometer has been developed for the OMEGA EP Laser System based on a spherically bent Si [220] crystal with a radius of curvature of 330 mm and a Spectral Instruments (SI) 800 Series charge-coupled device. The instrument measures time-integrated x-ray emission spectra in the 7.97- to 8.11-keV range, centered on the Cu K line. To demonstrate the performance of the spectrometer under high-power conditions, K emission spectra were measured from Cu foils irradiated by the OMEGA EP laser with 100-J, 1-ps pulses at focused intensities above 10 W/cm. The ultimate goal is to couple the spectrometer to a picosecond x-ray streak camera and measure temperature-equilibration dynamics inside rapidly heated materials. The plan for these ultrafast streaked x-ray spectroscopy studies is discussed.

A 10-ps, 263-nm (4ω) laser is being built to probe plasmas produced on the OMEGA EP [J. H. Kelly, L. J. Waxer, V. Bagnoud, I. A. Begishev, J. Bromage, B. E. Kruschwitz, T. E. Kessler, S. J. Loucks, D. N. Maywar, R. L. McCrory et al., J. Phys. IV France 133, 75-80 (2006)]. A suite of optical diagnostics (schlieren, interferometry, and grid image refractometry) has been designed to diagnose and characterize a wide variety of plasmas. Light scattered by the probe beam is collected by an f/4 catadioptric telescope and a transport system is designed to image with a near-diffraction-limited resolution (~1 - μm full width at half maximum) over a 5-mm field of view to a diagnostic table. The transport system provides a contrast greater than 1 : 10(4) with respect to all wavelengths outside of the 263 ± 2 nm measurement range.