Short-pulse laser-driven x-ray radiography

Abstract

We have developed a new radiography setup with a short-pulse laser-driven x-ray source. Using a radiography axis perpendicular to both long-and short-pulse lasers allowed optimizing the incident angle of the short-pulse laser on the x-ray source target. The setup has been tested with various x-ray source target materials and different laser wavelengths. Signal to noise ratios are presented as well as achieved spatial resolutions. The high quality of our technique is illustrated on a plasma flow radiograph obtained during a laboratory astrophysics experiment on POLARs.

Turbulent hydrodynamics experiments in high energy density plasmas: scientific case and preliminary results of the TurboHEDP project

“…Such targets require micromachining, precise assembly (embedded layers) and specific materials (doped brominated plastic). The Pico2000 beam is used in bottom-up geometry [67] to acquire snapshots of RTI during the linear and highly nonlinear phases. We are interested in accurate measurement of the mixing zone width in the nonlinear stage [68] .…”

Bremsstrahlung emission from high power laser interactions with constrained targets for industrial radiography

“…The source is asymmetric for wire targets as the electrons are only restricted in the horizontal axis. Using the edge of a foil, or supported wire targets, has previously demonstrated 1D and 2D restriction of the X-ray source [11,16] . Figure 5(a) shows the horizontal axis measurement decreasing with decreasing target thickness, but when measuring the vertical source size we see a relatively constant response -the X-ray source measuring ∼60 µm irrespective of wire diameter.…”

“…High intensity laser pulses rapidly ionize and accelerate electrons in laser-solid interactions, driving a multi-megaampere current of relativistic electrons into the target [1][2][3] . This electron current produces a bright source of bremsstrahlung radiation as it propagates, which has long been used as a source for radiography [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and as a diagnostic for the internal electron current [12][13][14][15] . In contrast to conventional sources of X-ray radiation, laser-driven sources are able to deliver a broad (keV to tens of MeV) range of energies in a duration on the order of the laser pulse (∼ps) from a small (<100 µm) source [6,16] .…”

Rayleigh-Taylor instability experiments on the LULI2000 laser in scaled conditions for young supernova remnants

“…Furthermore we do have a perfect control over the initial conditions, which are usually the consequences of numerical seeds in simulations [15]. Contrary to previous RTI laser plasma experiments performed over several years on larger scale facilities [23][24][25][26][27], the potential of short pulse driven x-ray radiography [28] allows, for the first time, one to acquire snapshots of RTI with unprecedented simultaneous spatial and temporal resolution. The RTI growth is measured until its nonlinear phase and the effect of the seed on the dynamic of RTI is quantified.…”

“…The radiography is performed on the orthogonal axis to the wave vector of the modulation. The radiography was performed in a bottom-up geome-try in order to reduce noise due to relativistic electrons [28] on the detector (an imaging plate -IP). The titanium wire emits in principle x-ray centered on the K α line at 4.5 keV, but has a strong component of hard x-rays due to bremsstrahlung emission.…”